{"id":59950,"date":"2026-10-19T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/?p=59950"},"modified":"2026-10-19T16:11:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T19:11:25","slug":"the-right-wing-forces-in-argentina-and-brazil-as-similar-as-they-are-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/the-right-wing-forces-in-argentina-and-brazil-as-similar-as-they-are-different\/","title":{"rendered":"The right-wing forces in Argentina and Brazil: as similar as they are different"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How can we understand the social and political strength that right-wing forces have gained in Argentina and Brazil, two countries that followed such different trajectories after their dictatorships? Milei and Bolsonaro are central figures in this process, but taking them as the starting point would be to mistake the fruit for the tree. Their roots lie in earlier processes involving networks, parties, discourses, institutions, and political projects consolidated over decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The differences in their origins are significant. In Argentina, the end of the dictatorship was marked by military defeat in the Falklands War and a more abrupt break with the armed forces. Beginning in 1983, the country developed a policy of memory, truth, and justice, with Nunca M\u00e1s<\/em> (\u201cNever Again\u201d) as one of its cornerstones. In Brazil, the transition was slow and negotiated, preserving spaces of power for the military and encouraging a more discreet approach to the authoritarian past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Despite these differences, the right-wing forces in both countries went on to develop surprisingly similar rhetoric and practices. In both cases, their rise can be understood as a reaction to the expansion of the democratic sociopolitical sphere driven, in particular, by the progressive governments of Kirchnerism and the Workers\u2019 Party (PT). The expansion of rights, social policies, and opportunities for participation by women, Indigenous peoples, quilombolas, landless workers, piqueteros, and other marginalized groups altered social relations and established privileges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The response of the right was to construct enemies. In Argentina, the term \u201cthe caste\u201d came to refer to the state, trade unions, universities, and, above all, Kirchnerism. In Brazil, the \u201csystem\u201d became associated with the PT, the press, universities, the Supreme Federal Court (STF), and political institutions. In both cases, legitimate adversaries were progressively portrayed as threats to the nation, freedom, or morality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, their political languages differ. In Brazil, neoconservatism revived the idea of a \u201cred\u201d threat, combining anticommunism, religious moralism, and anti-corruption rhetoric. In Argentina, where Peronism historically monopolized the language of \u201cthe people,\u201d Milei\u2019s libertarianism found its principal rallying cries in \u201cfreedom\u201d and the fight against \u201cthe caste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conflict also extended to science, universities, human rights, and gender policies. In both countries, universities and researchers were portrayed as centers of indoctrination or wasteful spending. The so-called \u201cgender ideology\u201d turned reproductive rights and the recognition of gender identity into central targets of conservative mobilization. In Argentina, this offensive emerged following major feminist victories, such as the legalization of abortion. In Brazil, it gained momentum primarily amid the political crisis that led to Dilma Rousseff\u2019s impeachment in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dispute over the authoritarian past also distinguishes the two cases while bringing them closer together. In Argentina, sectors of the right began advocating for a \u201ccomplete memory,\u201d challenging the consensus built around the crimes of the dictatorship. In Brazil, Bolsonarism went further by positively embracing figures associated with the military regime and downplaying its human rights violations. In both countries, sectors of the right began portraying human rights and multilateralism as expressions of an alleged ideological capture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ways in which power is built, however, are almost the inverse of one another. In Brazil, the radical right gradually took root in society before reaching the state. Religious networks, think tanks, publishing houses, blogs, and intellectual circles built a political infrastructure beginning in the 1980s and 1990s. This infrastructure gained strength during the 2013 demonstrations and throughout the cycle that led to Dilma Rousseff\u2019s impeachment in 2016 and Bolsonaro\u2019s election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Argentina, the process was different. The historical strength of Peronism and the weakness of an independent, popular right made it difficult to build a comparable social base. The failure of Macri\u2019s government opened the door to libertarian radicalization, but La Libertad Avanza came to power without a territorial structure comparable to Brazil\u2019s. Paradoxically, it is from within the state itself that Milei is attempting to build the political force he promised to fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This difference helps explain their governing styles. In Brazil, institutional dismantling took place more gradually and systematically, undermining state capacity in areas such as health, education, and the environment. In Argentina, the process took a more abrupt form, with cuts, privatizations, and a reduction in the role of the state under explicitly libertarian rhetoric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these differences, there is a fundamental point of convergence. The right-wing forces in both countries did not emerge solely as opposition movements against \u201cthe system\u201d and \u201cthe caste\u201d: their governments preserve or deepen elements of the neoliberal model while seeking to weaken oversight mechanisms and expand the room for maneuver of economic, religious, and military powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reason, the right-wing forces in Argentina and Brazil are distinctive. They differ in their origins, social bases, institutions, and pace of development, but converge in their reaction to democratic sociopolitical expansion and in their efforts to reverse some of the social and political gains achieved since redemocratization. What is at stake is not merely a government program, but the very definition of the boundaries of democracy: who can participate, what rights can be claimed, and how far the state should respond to the demands of a pluralistic society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article summarizes the introduction to the book<\/em> Direitas\/Derechas: Brasil & Argentina (Editorial Zouk, 2026), which contains 22 chapters written by some of the leading experts from Argentina and Brazil on the different dimensions that shape the right in both countries.<\/em><\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The right-wing forces in Argentina and Brazil converge in their reaction to the expansion of rights, but differ in their historical roots and strategies for building power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":858,"featured_media":59930,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17157,17054],"tags":[15635],"gps":[],"class_list":["post-59950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politia-en","category-derecha-en","tag-debates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/858"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59952,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59950\/revisions\/59952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59950"},{"taxonomy":"gps","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinoamerica21.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gps?post=59950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}