From New Lines Magazine.
On Dec. 4, 2024, the new and not-so-new leaders of the global far right gathered at the Hilton Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the foreign edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Amid handshakes, smiles and selfies, the event’s participants conjured the specter of an existential war.
The right-wing confab, which has gained more relevance in recent years — and recently hosted President Donald Trump and his senior adviser, Elon Musk, in a Lollapalooza-style event — was brought to Argentina, a nation of 47 million that has previously been a bastion of progressive politics but has recently made a sharp right turn, electing the “anarchocapitalist” economist Javier Milei as president in 2023.
CPAC started in the United States and remains based there, but has made international summits a regular feature. The first was held in Japan in 2017. Since then, the event has been exported to Hungary, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil. The Buenos Aires stage featured lawmakers, think tank leaders and former politicians from Latin America, Europe and the U.S., as well as Argentine podcast hosts, activists and social media personalities — all of whom spoke for a full day that followed a tight schedule. A notably enthusiastic audience, primarily young and male, cheered as these speakers took the stage.
The participants wore suits and T-shirts, ties and baseball caps, shot selfies between talks and feasted on offerings from the buffet: Caesar salad, mac and cheese and other signature American dishes. In the pop-up library of a far-right think tank at the auditorium entrance, participants whipped through books with words like “globalism,” “idiots,” “left” and “war” in their titles. The dimly lit auditorium was dominated by a stage illuminated with the red, white and blue of the U.S. flag.
The atmosphere was charged with euphoria about Trump’s victory in November. With his inauguration on the horizon, the proceedings felt like a roadmap for what was about to unfold: the withdrawal of Argentina and the U.S. from the World Health Organization, the intensification of anti-LGBTQ+ and antienvironmentalist agendas and the slashing of assistance programs worldwide after the arrival of Trump — and Musk — to the White House.
The narrative of good versus evil in a world censored by “wokeism” was pervasive at CPAC Argentina. The event radiated excitement and a sense of triumph. Some panels looked like a casting call for future conservative leaders: Politicians from countries currently ruled by center-left administrations spoke about taking their countries to the right. The list included Pablo Viana from the National Party of Uruguay; Rafael Lopez Aliaga, the mayor of Lima, Peru; Fernando Sanchez Ossa, a lawmaker from the Republican Party of Chile; and the politician Eduardo Verastegui from Mexico.
Argentina’s own President Milei, who has become an icon of the global far right, proudly hosted the forum. He won election by promising voters — who were tired of conventional (non)solutions to their recurring economic problems — that he would slash the state, dismantle the central bank and bury the political system (or “caste,” as he calls it) forever. His chainsaw — the signature of his presidential campaign — has caught fire: Musk wielded it at the CPAC gathering in Maryland in February this year, with Milei cheering him on from behind.
Once dismissed as a political outsider with an erratic streak, Milei was now at the nerve center of an international political project, shaping its language as much as its ambitions. His assertion that he is leading a battle “to end, once and for all, the socialist crap” prompted wild cheers.
Milei opened his CPAC speech with an eccentric touch, greeting the audience by saying “hola a todos” (hello everybody) in a creepy, alluring bass voice — a habit he’s developed by mimicking a song from La Renga, a local rock band that has repeatedly asked him not to use their music for his benefit. (“Anyone can dance to and sing our songs,” the band said in a statement, “but it’s legally and morally wrong to use the songs for personal or political gain — no true follower of La Renga would do that.”)
This unsettling quirk, which goes back to Milei’s 2023 presidential campaign, has intensified since he took office. Back then, little was said about “Dark MAGA,” the dystopian, aggressive aesthetic the alt-right has come to embrace. Milei has contributed to and come to symbolize that vibe. His bass voice and AI-powered images of him posing as a lion or as the Terminator destroying communist symbols and liberating people excite his supporters and repulse his critics.
After smirking proudly, he proceeded to deliver his prepared remarks and called on CPAC participants to coordinate globally to block the cracks through which “lefties” can “enter.” His solution: the creation of a “right-wing international.”
Lucía Cholakian Herrera is a journalist covering Argentina and Latin America from Buenos Aires.