At an upscale Mexico City hotel on Friday, several hundred right-wing activists and international allies gathered to carve an identity for Mexico’s fledgling conservative movement just as governments across Latin America swing left.
The US-based Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) — which has boosted far-right leaders such as former US president Donald Trump, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Hungarian President Viktor Orban — is scheduled to hold its first offshoot event in Mexico on Nov. 18 and 19.
The meeting follows a wave of leftist electoral victories in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and elsewhere that have cast doubt on the far right’s strength in Latin America, as it rallies against perceived adversaries in the media, pop culture, electoral agencies and big tech.
Photo: Reuters
“This is a global movement right now, and the reality is we are under complete assault,” former Trump advisor Steve Bannon said in a streamed address, claiming that Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stole the country’s election from Bolsonaro. Lula is to be sworn in on Jan. 1.
Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo was scheduled to speak later on Friday. Worries about the left’s return in Brazil and elsewhere in the region were front and center, followed by anger about changing gender values, including transgender issues.
American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp said in opening remarks that his “biggest worry” was the “march of godless communism” from Latin America to the US.
Trump, star of CPACs past, was not present, and none of his family members appeared on the speaker lineup. Just one attendee donned a red Trump cap.
Speakers, who included activists and media personalities from around the world, called for new leaders to fight the spread of “socialism,” “globalism” and “woke” culture in Mexico and elsewhere in the region.
“The right, the true right, has been orphaned,” said Eduardo Verastegui, a Mexican soap actor turned anti-abortion advocate who helped organize the conference.
The far right does not play an influential role in Mexico, where left-leaning President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador enjoys one of the hemisphere’s highest popularity ratings.
“A new right is needed, at least here in Mexico,” said Andres Burgueno, 28, who traveled from Mexico’s western Sinaloa state to attend the conference. “Right now what we see is really center-right, or centrist.”
On Nov. 13, opposition groups protested Lopez Obrador’s proposed reform of Mexico’s electoral institute in the largest demonstration against his policies since he took office in 2018. Several CPAC speakers signaled the reform as a key concern.
Still, “it’s difficult to see a conservative backlash against Lopez Obrador because [he] has been very conservative,” political analyst Carlos Bravo said, citing the president’s strong ties to the army, business and evangelical voters.
However, Bravo did not rule out the far right’s ability to move from the margins to the mainstream.
“They are playing a long game,” he said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS