In Latin America, the roots of fascism run deep. Across the hemisphere, fascist and far-right ideologies are reemerging, often growing out of religious movements.
“There is clearly a misunderstanding of far-right ideologies as belonging to a specific racial or ethnic group, and [many have] the idea that a Nazi Latinx or Latin American is a contradiction in terms,” Luis Herrán Ávila, an assistant professor of history at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque who researches far-right movements in Mexico and Latin America, tells The Progressive.
“This view derives from the mistake of seeing far-right ideologies as the exclusive domain of Europeans [or by extension the United States] even though Latin Americans have been exposed to and have embraced such ideas since their inception in the 1920s-1930s,” he explains. “And not necessarily in the parts of Latin America that we see as ‘whiter.’ Nazi/fascist and other far-right groups have been a staple in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and Peru.”
There is currently a resurgence of neo-Nazi and fascist movements in Mexico. This includes secret neo-Nazi punk rock and black metal concerts increasingly being held across the country, and the reemergence of fascist intellectual works. One example is the writings of Mexican fascist thinker Salvador Borrego being printed as editorials and sold alongside copies of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the notorious antisemitic conspiracy book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Fascist movements have long existed in Latin America. These movements were present in the region since the founding in 1921 of Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party in Italy.
As elsewhere, neo-Nazi and fascist groups in Mexico are not homogenous. As Luis Hernández Navarro, a Mexican journalist and editor of the opinion section of La Jornada, pointed out in a February 2023 column, “Some claim Mexicanness and others abhor the skin color of the earth. One sector claims pre-Hispanic cultures ‘of the pure race’ and another is unequivocally racist.”
But fascist movements have long existed in Latin America. These movements were present in the region since the founding in 1921 of Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party in Italy.
The history of fascism in Mexico offers parallels to the history of the far right throughout the hemisphere.
“Mexico has had a presence of fascism since the 1920s,” Herrán says. “[But] it wasn’t a big mass organization. It didn’t reach the level of threat that Mussolini's party had in Italy.”
In Mexico, the first Mexican fascist movements arose as the nation was still in the process of establishing itself following the end of the successful revolution that began in 1910. As Herrán points out, Mexico’s development was influenced by many global ideologies such as communism, socialism, liberalism, and, of course, fascism. Fueled by the revolutionary government’s anti-Catholic positions, many far-right groups emerged across Mexico in conjuncture with anti-imperialist nationalist movements.
By Casasola Archive - https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx CC BY-SA 4.0,
Mexico City Pro-Race Committee meeting in 1930.
Among these groups was the antisemitic paramilitary group the “Golden Shirts,” formed in the 1930s in support of General Nicolás Rodríguez, who sought to overthrow the government of Lázaro Cárdenas and regularly engaged in street violence against leftists. The coup ultimately failed, and Rodríguez was sent into exile where he continued to command his fascist paramilitary group from the United States.
During World War II, while the Mexican government of Manuel Ávila Camacho was aligned with the allies, there was an affinity with fascism under Mussolini, Germany’s Adolf Hitler, and Spain’s Francisco Franco. These adherents laid the base for the literature which would spread these far-right ideas in the coming decades, especially during the turbulent 1960s, when many young people involved in pro-Catholic and anti-communist movements turned to fascism.
“Since the 1930s and 1940s, the appeal of fascism and Nazism has been there,” Herrán points out. “It has survived and not just in those intellectual circles, but it also eventually permeated youth culture.”
Fascist movements have existed elsewhere in the hemisphere as well—in Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. These movements often used the same lexicon that embraced antisemitic dog whistles and sought political power through violence.
Department 50 of the PDI, National Archives, Chile.
Meeting of the Nazi Movement in southern Chile in the early 1940s
The rise of the far right in the region has regularly put democracy at risk, as was identified by current President Alberto Fernández of Argentina.
“Democracy is definitely at risk,” he said in a speech at the opening of the seventh meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in January 2023. “After the pandemic we have seen how far-right sectors have stood up and threatened each of our peoples.”
Today, fascism is reemerging throughout the hemisphere as authoritarian regimes throughout Central America increasingly concentrate their power. This includes the rise of President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, who is treated in the country as a near-messianic figure among the far right; also included is Brazil’s ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, who was regularly called “The Trump of the Tropics” and ruled with a far-right populism that New School for Social Research history professor Federico Finchelstein refers to as “wannabe fascism.”
Elections across the hemisphere have seen support for many far-right candidates. Recent elections in Chile, Colombia, and Brazil have all seen far-right candidates gain massive quantities of votes.
Upcoming elections will be no different.
In Argentina, for example, there is currently a surge of support for the far-right populist candidate, Javier Milei, who has positioned himself as an outsider candidate in the upcoming presidential race. In Guatemala, the far right has emerged through the candidacy of Zury Ríos, daughter of late dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.
Today’s authoritarian regimes have often increasingly taken a Christian nationalist bent. For instance, in Guatemala, where they have sought to approve legislation against a perceived “globalist” agenda. This narrative echoes historic antisemitism narratives but in the guise of the evangelical right’s narrative of the end-time predictions of the Bible’s Book of Revelation.
These evangelical fascist movements have spread messages opposing LGBTQ+ rights with an argument of “the defense of children.” These anti-LGBTQ+ positions build off the anti-communist movements of the Cold War.
These evangelical fascist movements have spread messages opposing LGBTQ+ rights with an argument of “the defense of children,” which has also been seen in Peru with the Con Mis Hijos No Te Metas movement, which has openly fought against LGBTQ+ rights (a branch of this movement also exists in Guatemala). The anti-LGBTQ+ positions build off the anti-communist movements of the Cold War, suggesting that the promotion of equality is part of an international conspiracy to undermine the family and the social order.
Other countries have also taken on proto-fascist positions, such as in Nicaragua, where the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his wife and “co-president,” Rosario Murillo have sought to concentrate power around themselves, painting themselves as the saviors of the country.
From Mexico to Chile, these fascist movements are reemerging. When observers cling only to European examples of fascism, it means that the signs emerging in this hemisphere are being overlooked.
“It’s very common in many parts of Latin America,” Herrán says. “You need to look outside of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy to see how many examples [there are] of the marriage of Christianity and Catholicism with fascism.”