By Raúl Capote on September 8, 2026
This is not a swing of the pendulum; it is not the classic back-and-forth between conservatives and progressives that has marked Latin American politics since the fall of the military dictatorships.
What is shaking the continent today is a profound transformation, a dark tide that, since 2023, has been staining the political map of Latin America and has brought the far right to power in twelve countries across the region
Since January 2025, the seven presidential elections held on the continent have all resulted in victory for a subservient right wing, fully subordinate to Washington’s dictates.
Ecuador with Daniel Noboa, Bolivia with Rodrigo Paz, Honduras with Nasry Asfura, Chile with José Antonio Kast, Costa Rica with Laura Fernández, Peru with Keiko Fujimori, and, most recently, Colombia with Abelardo de la Espriella—seven out of seven.
This is not the old conservative right, but a more aggressive, personality-driven version obsessed with security—one that is, at its core, deeply indebted to Trumpism.
Not all of them are carbon copies of the U.S. president, but most openly imitate his rhetoric, his agenda, and even his stage presence. Kast arrives at La Moneda promising mass deportations and fortifying the northern border; Laura Fernández governs Costa Rica with a mega-prison modeled after El Salvador’s CECOT; and De la Espriella addressed his supporters from behind bulletproof glass, wrapped in the flag, before an audience wearing “Make Colombia Great Again” caps.
This phenomenon is no coincidence; Trump himself has acted as the driving force and godfather of this wave. He sets the regional agenda, endorses candidates, and has orchestrated forums tailored to his agenda, such as the “Shield of the Americas” summit. The “Trumpification” of South America is now a confirmed reality.
While Argentina has become a large-scale testing ground for this far-right movement, Javier Milei—whose government essayist Maristella Svampa describes as a veritable “large-scale testing ground” for the far right—has just gathered some 500 staunch supporters in Buenos Aires at the “Vientos del Cambio” conference, with representatives from Peru, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, and El Salvador. There, they celebrated the 17,000 deregulations that have dismantled the Argentine state—a preview of the model they intend to export to the rest of the continent.
Brazil, one of the two bastions that, along with Mexico, still stand as representatives of the left, faces crucial elections.
Raul Capote, foto: Bill Hackwell
President Lula da Silva has warned that Brazilian democracy requires mobilization in the face of the far-right’s advance, and has cautioned against a “far-right international” that brings together Trump, Orbán, and the region’s radical leaders.
The fascist-like wave threatens to engulf the entire continent, in what would be one of the worst civilizational setbacks of our time—a historic regression into barbarism.
Raúl Capote is a Cuban writer, professor, researcher, and journalist. He is the author of Juego de Iluminaciones, El caballero ilustrado, *El adversario, Enemigo, and La guerra que se nos hace.