The international far-right, from Larry Trump and Steve Bannon to Jair Bolsonaro and Javier Millay, has joined reactionaries across Europe to refuse to promise the left a safe haven.
Buenas AIres-Thomas Marcone waited patiently in line to take a selfie with Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of Brazil’s disgraced president and congressman in Sao Paulo. A 29-year-old financial adviser and member of Argentine President Javier Milea’s La Libertad Avanza (LLA) coalition, Marcone was previously registered with the centre-right PRO party but decided it was “too woke”.
“During (President Mauricio) Macri’s administration, they spent a lot of money on poor people,” he said before correcting himself. “Not poor people. People who did not want to work. People who came here from abroad and wanted work and health care.”
I asked how he defined the word “awake”. Marcone stirred nervously in his black suit.
“I think ‘woke’ is someone who doesn’t like the way the world is,” he said. “They want to radically change the world. They are radicals. They are very aggressive.”
By this definition, isn’t Miley, a self-styled anarcho-capitalist who regularly ridicules his political opposition and has made it his mission to dismantle the Argentine administrative state, “woke”?
“No, no. A nicer one. These are Marxists and Communists.”
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Marcone was one of more than 2,000 attendees here at the Hilton Hotel in posh Puerto Madera on Wednesday at CPAC Argentina is the third Latin American country to host the event since 2019. During nine long, at times punishing hours, speakers ranging from Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump to failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate and Senate candidate Kari Lake to right-wing media Ben Shapiro to Vox leader Sam Santiago Abascal da Milley railed against the evils of socialism, real and imagined, and the very governments they led or were about to lead. Together, they offered a preview of Trump’s second term and a glimpse of a nascent far-right international movement based on laissez-faire economics, with hubs in countries as diverse as Brazil, Hungary and Spain.
“It’s a new day in America,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, who served as the master of ceremonies for the day with his wife, Mercedes. “The tyranny of Barack Obama and Joe Biden is finally over.”
Describing her father-in-law’s photo as one of the “coolest” and, ironically, “hottest in the whole world,” Lara Trump opened the symposium by laying out the future president’s vision for the country and the ways it aligns with Miley’s. That vision focused on eliminating government waste, a project spearheaded by X CEO Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at its inception Department of State Efficiency.
Referring to Miley’s austerity plan, which has resulted in the elimination of tens of thousands of government jobs and drastic cuts in social spending, Trump promised that “we will do the same in the United States.”
“Today, Argentina is showing the world what is possible by reducing the rules (and) shooting,” she continued. “America is on the verge of that same renaissance.”
Trump was followed by a pair of speakers who gave video messages instead of speaking because their legal issues prevented them from attending. The first was Jair Bolsonaro, who was recently involved in the plot to assassinate then-president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva after the 2022 presidential election in Brazil. The second was political strategist Steve Bannon, who completed a four months of arrest in October for ignoring a subpoena from a congressional committee investigating the attacks on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He still faces charges of defrauding donors to his We Build the Wall fundraising campaign, and has pleaded not guilty.
During his speech, an exasperated Bannon called Argentina the “tip of the spear” for the “Judeo-Christian West,” suggesting that if the country were to fail, South America would fail as well. The crowd clapped politely.
Outside the air-conditioned conference room, past an exhibition of Spanish-language books that included Millais: The Revolution They Didn’t See, Austrian school from the inside, A generation of idiotsand The Black Book of the New LeftJuan Martin Pielach circulated a buffet of penne, beef stew and broccoli casserole in a blue suit and a bright red MAGA hat with the numbers “45-47” embroidered on the side.
A student at North Carolina Wesleyan University, Pielach managed to avoid the usual $100 entrance fee, or just over 100,000 Argentine pesos, to see Maille and some of his new allies in the US.
“These are just rumours, but it seems that help from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank is coming,” he said. Nation. “It would be good for us. Trump is a great businessman.”
While monthly inflation in Argentina fell from 25.5 percent in December 2023 when Mileus took power to down from 3 percent last monthArgentina’s international reserves remain low. In October, the International Monetary Fund predicted that the country’s GDP would decrease by 3.8 percent this year. Economy Minister Santiago Caputo recently confirmed that he is in “informal talks” with the fund to obtain a new loan.
Fernando Cerimedo, Milei’s former digital strategist who recently was indicted in Brazil for his role in inciting the coup attempt against Lula, was more cautious. Speaking to a small group of reporters, he acknowledged that while Trump’s victory was welcome news for the administration, it would likely take a wait-and-see approach.
“I think it’s going to be a smooth relationship, but let’s not expect a partnership where they hug each other every day,” he said. “We cannot expect the Hercules plane to deliver 30 billion dollars to Argentina on January 20. But luckily, Trump is in place, and I know he and Miley really admire each other.”
After lunch, Shapiro made his remarks so quickly that he seemed to be creating his own microphone. His speech — a tribute to economist Thomas Sowell and the democratizing power of free markets — was largely incomprehensible.
A local photographer asked if he was an influential person in the US. I wasn’t sure what to answer.
Lake came on next, describing Miley as a “caffeinated Donald Trump” before offering a familiar iremiad about election integrity. “I think we can all agree that Joe Biden didn’t get 81 million votes,” she said, implying that her recent Senate race, in which she lost by 2.4 percent, despite the fact that virtually the entire country shifted to the right, was stolen.
Abril Augustina did not listen. A 23-year-old member of the libertarian organization Somos Libertarios 3F, which takes its name from a street in Buenos Aires, she revealed that she joined the movement last year after casting a clean ballot in the 2019 presidential election.
“Now we have a president who tells it like it is,” Agustina explained. “And the best part is that he does what he says he’s going to do. We are already starting to see results ahead of schedule. If inflation declines, the forecast for 2027 is very good. And when the whole country turns purple (LLA’s official color), you can be sure that economic liberalism will reach every corner of Latin America.”
“The freer America is, the freer the market,” she continued. “And the United States became freer.”
Moments later, Mercedes Schlapp, herself a first-generation Cuban-American from Miami, Florida, ventured into the communal area in front of the escalators, fielding a few questions from reporters and outlining the Trump administration’s plans for the region.
“Latin America is crucial,” she said. “It’s right in our backyard. We need to have a strong trade relationship with these countries, and we’ve seen China really step in. We have to be aggressive because the Biden administration has failed, and I believe Senator Marco Rubio will restore that relationship as secretary of state.”
The handler quickly took her away. Outside the hotel, on Macacha Gemes Boulevard, about a dozen protesters expressed their own thoughts on US foreign policy in Latin America, chanting:Motherland yes, colonies no!” and the anti-fascist slogan “They will not pass!” — “They will not pass,” waving national flags attached to bamboo poles. A CPAC observer shouted:I think!»
“These meetings decide the fate of millions of brothers in the Global South,” said demonstration leader Raphael Kleiser. Nation. “They are robbing our lands, and (the Milea administration) is giving away our wealth. We export raw materials to the industrial North, and they sell them back to us in the form of mobile phones and trinkets. This must be stopped.”
Inside, the president’s arrival caused a commotion: the press jockeyed for position and his supporters — including Pielach and Agustino — clambered over each other to snap a phone photo. Around 7:30, he finally took the stage, greeting the crowd with his trademark “Hello everyone” roar.
For most of the hour, Millais played all the hits: he quoted the Austrian-American economist Ludwig von Mises; he compared his political project to that of the Maccabees during the Seleucid Empire; and he compared himself to a gladiator in ancient Rome. In between, he announced that he would be appearing on the streaming network of a far-right social media personality called “Fat Dan,” a revelation that drew a standing ovation from the full house.
Aside from his characteristic arrogance and self-aggrandizement, Miley’s speech also struck an ominous note for those willing to take him at his word. He described politics as a zero-sum battle between good and evil. He argued that only a strong force could defeat a strong adversary and that no compromise or consensus could be reached with the left. More disturbingly, he declared that his companions must be willing to sacrifice their lives for their cause—a dangerous plea for a nascent global movement.
At the end of the event, several security guards blocked the entrance to the meeting hall so that the president could leave without hindrance. After a few minutes, the nervous laughter gave way to loud complaints. The guard did not move. Finally, an elderly man pushed one of the officials aside and the floodgates opened. Freedom finally.
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