By Juan P. Villasmil, an Intercollegiate Studies Institute journalism fellow serving as an editorial assistant at the Spectator World.
National populism is increasingly defining right-wing electoral politics in the United States and Europe. But Latin America has chosen a different path—emerging as a bastion of libertarianism on the global stage.
National populism is increasingly defining right-wing electoral politics in the United States and Europe. But Latin America has chosen a different path—emerging as a bastion of libertarianism on the global stage.
This year alone, a self-described anarcho-capitalist has become the new face of Argentina’s opposition. Javier Milei earned the most votes in the country’s August presidential primaries and then eliminated center-right candidate Patricia Bullrich in the first round of presidential elections on Oct. 22. Milei is set to face off with Economy Minister Sergio Massa, of the governing Peronist movement, in a Nov. 19 runoff.
Massa finished first in the Oct. 22 election, but it would be misleading to portray the vote as a win for Argentina’s left. The right-of-center vote was split between Bullrich and Milei, and Bullrich has since endorsed Milei. So has former conservative President Mauricio Macri. Polling is inconsistent, but Milei leads six national polls in a survey of 10 polls assessed by El Observador.
On the same day as Argentina’s first-round election, Venezuela’s María Corina Machado and her libertarian party humiliated the traditional opposition in primaries ahead of expected presidential elections next year. Machado, who has been compared to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is one of the lone voices in Venezuela’s opposition openly advocating for the privatization of the oil industry. (Venezuela is home to the world’s largest oil reserves.) Her party has also organized seminars celebrating libertarian titan Milton Friedman. Machado herself has shown support for socially progressive causes such as gay marriage, distancing herself from both social conservatism and Keynesian economics.
In Uruguay, meanwhile, a libertarian party inspired by Milei officially registered with authorities on Sep. 29, saying it seeks to “go beyond” right vs. left discourse and aims to respect “everyone’s individual rights.” In Ecuador, Daniel Noboa—the son of the country’s wealthiest man—recently defeated his socialist rival and is set to continue the pro-business legacy of his predecessor Guillermo Lasso. Noboa’s principles are the most confusing of any of the aforementioned politicians. He defines himself as center-left while citing free enterprise as his priority. In 2021, his predecessor—and now supporter—Lasso earned an endorsement from Ecuador’s Libertarian Movement.
The political economy of Latin America helps explain why it has become the perfect breeding ground for libertarianism. The rapid growth of the movement, though, should be attributed to a network of libertarian think tanks, leaders, and activists who have long peddled influence—and are starting to see it pay off.
Since before the Great Depression, Latin American countries broadly subscribed to an import substitution industrialization model. This strategy prescribed decreasing economic dependence on other countries and encouraged national production. Quotas and tariffs were the preferred policy instruments of the era—a reaction to years of an export-centric model that hurt domestic industries. Before 1914, the region was considered the most protectionist in the planet, a fact that changed only when post-World War II Asia caught up.
Although theoretically coherent and held in high regard at the time, import substitution industrialization became a costly policy to maintain. From 1970 to 1982, Latin America’s total debt levels increased by more than 1,000 percent (from $29 to $327 billion). The lost decade, as scholars now call it, angered millions of Latin Americans, and demonstrations against the Washington-based International Monetary Fund—known to prescribe austerity—spanned from Mexico to Argentina.
It was then, as popular discontent soared, that the Soviet Union found the perfect conditions to further challenge the United States in its hemisphere, which in turn only reinvigorated U.S. interventionism. Both countries aided Latin American dictatorships that killed hundreds in their respective quests to expand socialist and capitalist economic models. Most notably, the United States backed Chile’s Augusto Pinochet and Argentina’s Jorge Videla while the Soviets supported Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega. The politically motivated decisions of this era accelerated Latin American dysfunction, fostering a reactionary loop of capitalism begetting socialism and vice versa.
Latin America was then—and remains today—the most unequal region in the world. Even after substantial reductions in inequality over the past decade, eight out of the 20 most economically unequal countries on the planet are located in the region. It is there where socialists found the perfect terrain to spread their ideas, and after they governed, the inflation-ridden and capital-fleeing states they left behind became cannon fodder for the pro-business political class, which banked on calls to fight inflation and attract foreign investment.
But when inequality remained, socialists once again reaped the ideal conditions for their movement to flourish. It’s not surprising that Latin American leaders often rise to prominence calling for radical privatization or nationalization projects. In Venezuela, for instance, former President Hugo Chávez led a political revolution with calls for massive redistribution programs; since he came to power in 1999, no opposition presidential candidate—most of whom spoke like moderates—has gathered as much widespread support as Machado received. In Argentina, in a similar fashion, the messy-haired and foul-mouthed Milei has stolen the spotlight from moderate conservatism, literally destroying a piñata of Argentina’s central bank on national TV.
Over the past few years, Latin America has seen a socialist resurgence. Countries such as Chile and Colombia, which previously resisted the so-called “Pink Tide,” have elected socialists, while in Argentina and Brazil, conservative presidents failed to win reelection.
As the left’s grasp over the region increased, libertarians were organizing. Dissatisfied with both socialism and what they viewed as a weak conservative opposition, social media-savvy public intellectuals such as Milei became icons. He was not alone: Less famous members of this cohort include Guatemala’s Gloria Álvarez (who announced that she would run for president even though she didn’t meet the age limit) and Chile’s Axel Kaiser (who founded the libertarian think tank Foundation for Progress).
While eccentric personalities and a receptive population have played a role in libertarians’ rise across Latin America, the movement did not just grow organically. Wealthy Americans, such as the Koch brothers, have played a role funding not only libertarian think tanks in the United States, including the Cato Institute, but have also founded networks with a vast presence in Latin America.
The Atlas Network, for instance—which describes itself as a “think tank that creates think tanks”—has around 500 partners around the world, and its friends include Machado, Colombian presidential-candidate-in-the-making María Fernanda Cabal, and Peruvian Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa.
In 2018, the network created a Center for Latin America, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, and at the time included more than 80 affiliate civil society organizations. Two notable members are Chile’s Fundación Piensa and Argentina’s Libertad y Progreso. The Argentinian think tank also partners with the Cato Institute, the Acton Institute, and the Heritage Foundation.
Similarly, under the banner of free-market economics, regional alliances have also been strengthened. The Liberal Network for Latin America (RELIAL) was established in 2004. It is the regional organization of Liberal International, which was founded in Oxford, England, in 1947, and has since become the preeminent global liberal organization, with dozens of member political parties throughout the world. RELIAL now includes 42 institutions from 17 Latin American countries, such as research institutes and foundations. Machado’s party is a member.
Of the RELIAL-partnered think tanks, the Center for the Dissemination of Economic Knowledge for Liberty (CEDICE) has been under fire by supporters of Chávez, Venezuela’s former president, for more than 10 years. Like Argentina’s Libertad y Progreso, CEDICE partners with both RELIAL and the Atlas Network.
According to a 2009 Aporrea report by Eva Golinger, the American journalist-turned-Chávez advisor, CEDICE has received direct financial support and strategic advice from the U.S. government since 2001. Golinger, known for using Freedom of Information Act requests to uncover U.S. involvement in Venezuela, has drawn connections between the National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and CEDICE. She has linked Machado’s now-defunct nongovernmental organization, Súmate, to U.S. government funding as well. Golinger’s report also points out how the Cato Institute has worked alongside CEDICE, such as via the ElCato-CEDICE University in Caracas, as well as directly with Venezuela’s opposition. Cato granted the Milton Friedman Prize to Venezuelan politician Yon Goicoechea in 2008.
In recent years, the Russian American writer Ayn Rand has become an ideological sweetheart among Latin America’s right-of-center activists. Groups such as the Ayn Rand Latin America Center have held Ayn Rand conventions in Argentina and Brazil, and Rand’s Atlas Shrugged has flooded Latin American bookshelves following the publication of a translation in 2019. Milei has even called for an “Atlas rebellion.”
Venezuelan libertarian activists based in the United States—including Univision’s Linea de Fuego talk show host Franklin Camargo and the Young America’s Foundation’s Daniel Di Martino—showcase the growing influence of those who love Rand’s ideas. The former has gone from creating YouTube videos with the Atlas Society to quoting Rand to audiences of thousands; the latter has gone from Fox News hits on the perils of socialism to starting the Dissident Project, which sends anti-socialist, anti-authoritarian speakers to high schools across the United States.
Latin American libertarians have taken organizing seriously. As new elections approach, don’t be surprised by their success.
