The Alt-Right in Latin America

Following the collapse of left-wing populist movements in Latin America, neoliberal and authoritarian governments have spread all over the region. Clear examples of this resurgence are Bolsonaro in Brazil, Lenin Moreno in Ecuador, and Mauricio Macri in Argentina, not to mention the authoritarian drift of Nicolás Maduro’s government in Venezuela. This authoritarian turn at the institutional-political level has been accompanied by ideological changes in public and ‘non-public’ opinion: hate speech, anti-egalitarian discourses, authoritarian values, and an individualistic common sense. Of course, these discourses existed in the past too, but their virulence and the new constellations in which they are inscribed represent an ideological novelty in the Latin American political landscape.

… more

Javier Villamor, Nicolás Márquez & Agustín Laje at a conference organized by the far-right, ultra-catholic Spanish group "HazteOir". Picture by https://www.flickr.com/photos/hazteoir/

Gustavo Robles

Gustavo Robles studied contemporary history and philosophy, an area in which he received his Ph.D. degree. He has been an Associated Professor at the Department of Education at the National University of La Plata (UNLP), a Postdoc-Researcher at the Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (UNLP-CONICET, Argentina), and an Invited Lecturer at different Argentinian Universities. He also carried out doctoral and postdoctoral research stays at different German universities, such as the University of Frankfurt, the University of Jena, and the Humboldt University of Berlin. His areas of research interests are Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, contemporary political thought, and social philosophy, and his current project is focused on the connections between subjectivization processes and affective dimensions in current authoritarian neoliberalism. Furthermore, he is an activist in different political and cultural collectives in Argentina and Germany related to issues such as human rights and immigrant working conditions.

Last publications:
"Crisis de la experiencia y (pos)fascismos. Lecturas desde la Teoría Crítica". Constelaciones. Revista de Teoría Crítica. N° 13. 312-339. 2021

"La teoría del reconocimiento de Axel Honneth. Análisis crítico". In Comou, Antonio (ed.). Perspectivas en Teoría Social Contemporánea. La Plata: EDULP. 2021

"El fin de algunas ilusiones. Subjetividad y democracia en tiempos de regresión autoritaria". Resistencias. Revista de Filosofía de la Historia. 2(1). 14-27- 2020

"Sobre la dimensión política del resentimiento" (2020). Castalia. Revista de Psicología. 34. 5-23

Latin American Neoconservatisms and Antifeminism: Freedom, Family, and Life

In Latin America, the re-neoliberalization of political and economic systems has intensified an ongoing process of de-democratization, strengthening the onslaught by neoconservative religious and secular groups, which have been growing more powerful since around 2013. These two processes—re-neoliberalization and the growth of neoconservatisms—are connected.

… more

Ailynn Torres

Ailynn Torres Santana is a postdoctoral researcher at the International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies (IRGAC) of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (2019-2022), a visiting researcher at the Freie Universität Berlin (2021), an associate researcher at FLACSO Ecuador (2019-2022), and a visiting scholar at Northwestern University – Chicago (fall 2021). She has been an associate professor at Universidad de la Habana (2006-2012) and visiting professor at Freie Universität Berlin (2021), FLACSO Ecuador (2016-2018, 2020-2022), Universidad de Barcelona (2015, 2018, 2022), and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2018). In 2019 she was a visiting researcher at Harvard University. Her research interests include feminist movements, inequality, and citizenship in Latin America. She is editor of the books "Derechos en riesgo en América Latina: 11 estudios sobre grupos neoconservadores" (Quito/ Bogotá: Fundación Rosa Luxemburgo/Desde Abajo, 2020) and "Los Cuidados: del centro de la vida al centro de la política" (Santiago: FES-ILDIS, 2021). She has written lots of academic papers about gender inequalities and feminist politics in Latin America and Cuba. She has a column on OnCuba News and has collaborated with a lot of press platforms such as Jacobin-Lat, NACLA, and Sidecar-New Left Review. She is a member of the editorial boards of Cuban Studies (Harvard University) and Sin Permiso (Barcelona).

“We don’t keep quiet, we are not afraid, we don’t obey”

Femicides stand out as one of the biggest social problems in Turkey today causing a widespread and pronounced public reaction. The femicide cases are frequently on the news exploited by mainstream media with graphic coverage. The names of murdered women and pleas for retribution regularly become trending topic on Twitter. The outrage against femicides is expressive of the liberalizing worldviews and gender ideology in Turkish society while also conveying the popular contention against the government’s overall authoritarian politics along with its efforts for the recomposition of patriarchy.

… more

Demonstration of We Will Stop Femicides Platform for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, 22 November 2020, Istanbul. Photo by Ülker Sözen

Ülker Sözen

Ülker Sözen received her PhD in Sociology from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Turkey in 2017. Her dissertation explored the identity revival and the entanglement of culture and politics among the Dersimli people.

Latin America in a Pandemic: Rights, Authoritarianism, and Conservatism

The COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold as a global drama in early 2020. Since then, international organizations have urged governments to protect both the rights of their citizens and human life. In (geo)political terms, the long-term outcomes remain uncertain. Some claim that dispossession and authoritarianism will be reinforced. Others state that capitalism as we know it will not recover, and there will be clearer openings to allow for more democratic and just social and economic forms.

… more