Latin America's Right-Wing Leaders Increasingly Cross Borders to Back Allies
A new generation of right-wing leaders in Latin America is openly stepping into one another's election campaigns, praising allies and attacking rivals, The New York Times reports.
The New York Times highlights an emerging trend in Latin American politics: right-wing leaders across the region are increasingly stepping into the electoral affairs of neighboring countries. Rather than observing the traditional diplomatic restraint of staying out of another nation's election, these politicians are openly cheering candidates who share their views while sharply criticizing their rivals.
A defining feature of this pattern is a shared rhetorical vocabulary, most notably the term "wokismo" — a Spanish-language rendering of "wokeism" — which right-wing figures use to label and reject progressive and left-leaning political positions. The word has become something of a rallying cry, uniting right-wing leaders from different countries under a common rhetorical banner against their political opponents.
This cross-border solidarity takes several forms, ranging from public endorsements and congratulatory messages for ideological allies to direct insults aimed at opposing candidates in other countries. The behavior suggests that right-wing movements across the region increasingly see themselves as part of an interconnected network rather than as isolated, purely domestic political forces.
The observation fits into a broader pattern that international observers have also noted in other parts of the world, where right-wing political forces have grown more active and more coordinated with one another in recent years.
