In recent years, feminist and anti-patriarchal organizations in Latin America have sounded the alarm over government actions that threaten to further erode the fundamental rights of women and gender-nonconforming individuals in the region, while observing the rise of far-right groups that seek to influence public policy by orchestrating disinformation campaigns and smear campaigns against feminist organizations.
“[It was upon achieving] decriminalization in our countries that we began to see a more rapid advance of the anti-rights movement. Through a series of movements across the country—and within the broader global context—these groups have been strengthened,” states Angie Contreras of the organization Vivas y Libres in Mexico, in an interview with Avispa Mídia.
The electoral victories of the far right in the region have accelerated this encroachment, bringing members of anti-rights movements into state structures, from where they have facilitated the shutdown of programs and the ideological transformation of institutions. This onslaught has been particularly aimed at undoing the achievements of movements for women’s sexual and reproductive freedoms.
In this first installment, we present an overview of the rise of far-right movements that today threaten the bodily autonomy of women and gender-nonconforming individuals in the region, as well as their strategies and transnational networks of action. In a subsequent article, we will examine how networks of anti-rights groups are forming in northern and central Mexico, and in a third installment, we will focus on the grassroots collectives resisting the far-right onslaught in the region.
Legislative setbacks
The warning issued by women’s groups and social organizations is not unfounded. In the past year alone, various initiatives have been introduced across the continent that seek to roll back the progress made by movements for the right to choose. In Chile, for example, lawmakers from the National Libertarian, Republican, and National Renewal parties introduced a bill on July 7 to amend the Public Health Code that would require, if approved, women seeking to terminate a pregnancy for the three legally recognized grounds in the country—namely, rape, risk to the mother’s life, and fetal nonviability—to listen to the fetal heartbeat as a prerequisite for giving consent to the procedure.
This initiative comes during the first year of José Antonio Kast’s administration. Kast has previously called himself a “defender of life from conception” and, during his campaign, announced his intention to make changes to Chile’s educational programs under the slogan of ensuring an education “free of ideologies.”
Similarly, in Colombia, on July 30, a group of lawmakers introduced a bill to amend Article 11 of the Constitution to establish the protection of life “from conception” as a way to counter the fact that abortion is legal without restrictions in that country up to the 24th week of pregnancy, as ruled by the Constitutional Court in 2022. A week after this initiative was introduced, on July 7, Abelardo de la Espriella took office as president of Colombia, alongside other far-right leaders from the region, such as Javier Milei, president of Argentina; José Antonio Kast himself; and Daniel Noboa, president of Ecuador.
In Mexico this year, local legislatures have successfully proposed designating March 25—the Feast of the Annunciation in the Catholic calendar—as “Day of the Unborn Child” or “Day for the Protection of Human Life.” This is happening in states such as Nuevo León, where abortion has not been fully decriminalized, even though the criminalization of abortion was declared unconstitutional in Mexico by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in September 2021. These are just a few examples from the region.
Changes in government structures
Beyond these legislative initiatives, a trend that is particularly concerning for organizations in the region is the downsizing of government structures responsible for guaranteeing sexual and reproductive rights.
This trend is most evident in countries such as Argentina, where, according to the report *The Cost of Withdrawal: Barriers, Debt, and Inequality in Access to Abortion in Argentina*, published by Amnesty International last May, the government closed or stopped funding more than a dozen programs on sexual and reproductive health, LGBT+ rights, and the prevention of gender-based violence, including the National Plan for the Prevention of Unintended Teenage Pregnancy (ENIA). This comes on top of the dissolution of the Ministry of Women, Gender, and Diversity, which was downgraded at the start of Javier Milei’s administration and shut down entirely in June 2024. In addition, lawmakers from La Libertad Avanza, Milei’s party, introduced a bill that same year to reinstate criminal penalties for abortion in Argentina, which had been legalized just four years earlier.
In El Salvador, since 2022, the government of Nayib Bukele, as part of its policy of cutting social spending, has drastically reduced the budget allocated to the Salvadoran Institute for the Development of Women, and by 2025, more than half of the projects related to gender-based violence had been defunded, according to the report *Freedoms at Risk: Anti-Rights Groups and Inequalities in Latin America and the Caribbean*, published by Oxfam in March of this year.
In Ecuador, the Ministry of Women was merged into the Ministry of the Interior in October 2025, raising concerns among organizations about the future operation and funding of the programs administered by this agency.
Far-Right conspiracies
According to some human rights organizations, such as Oxfam and the Association for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, the rise of these types of policies occurs in the context of a widespread resurgence of anti-rights groups in the region, which—although they have existed for some time—gained greater momentum worldwide beginning in the early 2010s, when the narrative of the fight against “gender ideology”—as far-right groups have labeled the struggle of feminist and sexual minority movements—began to take hold. Since then, the far right has advanced in the region through power alliances at various levels and by gaining ground within governments.
Organizations note that the network of far-right movements in the region is made up of a diverse range of actors, including business associations, political parties, civil society organizations, religious institutions, and the media. Of particular note is the creation of international networks that provide structure and funding to national and local organizations working to build a social base aligned with the values they promote. They operate primarily by influencing specific actors to advance their agenda within governments.
This is the case with the Political Network for Values (PnfV), a transnational platform of ultra-conservative politicians who forge ties through summits and seminars while developing youth leadership programs. According to public information on its website, the PnfV’s advisory board is composed of members of the European Parliament, as well as secretaries of state and high-level politicians primarily from Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Its expert committee, on the other hand, is made up of leaders of far-right organizations from these regions as well as from the United States, notably organizations such as the Center for Family and Human Rights and The Heritage Foundation. This network’s activities are strongly directed at representatives of national organizations and politicians in Latin American countries, primarily Mexico, Chile, and Colombia, according to research on this network published by the U.S. organizations IPAS and Empower in 2023.
According to Sonia Corrêa and Juan Elman, analysts of this process, the political power of anti-rights groups lies in their ability to mobilize politically at various levels—from academia, advocacy, and civil society to grassroots organizations. “Certain actors embed anti-gender arguments into local legal and cultural discourses; forge alliances with political, media, and religious elites; and exploit the digital landscape to spread disinformation, stoke moral panic, and shape public discourse. Herein lie some of the keys to their success,” states the report *From Spain to the World: The Global Reach of the Spanish Far Right Against Sexual and Reproductive Rights*, published by the Catalan organization Association for Sexual and Reproductive Rights in October 2025.
The direct interference of religious and far-right groups in Latin American countries has become increasingly evident in recent years. One example of this is, once again, Argentina, where individuals from evangelical churches and conservative, anti-rights groups hold public office in Javier Milei’s administration. “These groups have been governing here since December 10, 2023—that is, it is precisely these groups, evangelical pastors. I believe they continue to organize outside the state, without a doubt, but they are truly the power behind the State. That is what is happening today,” states Ayelén Correa Ruau, a journalist with Latinoamérica Rompe el Cerco, in an interview with Avispa Midia.
In addition to their direct integration into the state structure, other strategies used by far-right groups in the region include the use of welfare programs to build political clienteles, the creation of civil society platforms such as organizations and foundations, as well as the formation of political parties and the forging of alliances with legislators.
Oxfam and the Association for Sexual and Reproductive Rights also identified the creation of opaque funding structures originating in the Global North. For example, the Political Network for Values is primarily funded by co-sponsoring organizations, which in turn receive funding from private Christian and ultra-conservative foundations in the U.S. and Europe, according to information gathered by Ipas and Empower in the report *The Political Network for Values: The Global Far Right at the United Nations*.
The Transatlantic Summits organized by the Political Network for Values have been sponsored by U.S. far-right organizations such as Family Watch International, the Center for Family and Human Rights, Alliance Defending Freedom, and the International Organization for the Family—the network responsible for organizing the World Congress of Families, another event that brings together far-right organizations from around the world.
In Europe, the Transatlantic Summits have also been funded by organizations such as the Foundation for a Civic Hungary and the Center for Fundamental Rights. The latter, also based in Hungary, is the main organizer of the Conservative Action Political Conference in Europe, according to information gathered by Ipas and Empower.
In recent months, PNfV was implicated in journalistic investigations by Chilean media outlets for having received funds from the European Union through misappropriations carried out by former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is currently under investigation for possible acts of corruption during his administration.
Transnational networks
There are at least five organizations of Spanish origin influencing the anti-rights groups that are currently on the rise in Latin America, according to the study *From Spain to the World: The Global Reach of the Spanish Far Right Against Sexual and Reproductive Rights*, conducted by the Catalan organization Asociación de Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos. The first of these is Opus Dei, a long-standing Catholic far-right network that currently has a presence in 74 countries—primarily in Europe and Latin America—and boasts nearly 100,000 registered members.
Another is Hazte Oír, an organization founded in 2001 with influence primarily in Spanish-speaking countries. CitizenGo, meanwhile, is a digital petition network that coordinates the demands of anti-rights groups in at least 50 countries, this being one of the most common advocacy strategies employed by these movements.
Furthermore, the Catalan organization identifies the Spanish party Vox as one of the actors strengthening far-right groups in Latin America and championing the anti-communist narrative in the region, primarily through the Madrid Forum, an alliance of far-right parties from Spain and Latin America founded in 2020.
There is also the Political Network for Values (PNfV), a network created in 2014 by Jaime Mayor Oreja, an ultra-conservative politician and member of Spain’s Popular Party. It is important to mention that Chile’s current president, José Antonio Kast, is an active member of the PNfV network, which he chaired from 2022 to 2024, while also serving as president of the Chilean organization Acción Republicana (AR).
Recently, from July 19 to 26, the Political Network for Values organized a political forum as part of its 2026 Youth Program, attended by more than 60 representatives from far-right organizations in Spanish-speaking countries. The Argentine government participated in the event, which took place at government facilities, including the headquarters of the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
A neoliberal reaction
Adriana Patlán, director of Equidad de Género, Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia, A.C.—an organization that works on women’s rights in Mexico—states that the current attacks on feminist movements arise as a response to the enormous capacity these movements have had to transform societies over the past century.
“It’s no small matter that they’re targeting the ministries of equity, because the strongest movement of the last 100 years—one that has fought for significant social change—is feminism, without resorting to violence. So, of course, what has frightened them is that we’ve been able to organize to advance rights—not just women’s rights. We’ve brought about many changes through social movements to improve people’s living conditions. I think that’s very important,” she states in an interview with Avispa Mídia.
For her part, Ayelén Correa Ruau asserts that the efforts of far-right movements seeking to control women’s bodies are part of Capital’s expansionist logic in the region.
“What happened on January 3 in Venezuela is, for me, a watershed moment in this cycle that is taking shape. What could be more explicit about appropriating a body-territory than what they did on January 3? Not because they took Maduro and Silvia Flores away, but in the sense of what it means for global Zionist power to carry out this kind of intervention. I think that’s it—they’re truly walking all over our bodies. That’s what’s happening, and whose bodies suffer the most during an earthquake or a military invasion? It’s ours,” Ayelén shares.
According to an analysis by Oxfam, anti-rights groups have used the shrinking of civic space, the crisis in the international human rights system, and the systematic attack on organizations that are part of that system—especially feminist organizations and those defending the rights of sexually diverse populations—as strategies to expand their influence in the region. “There is a close link between the interests of economic elites, the radical right, and fundamentalist groups, which converge around the defense of free markets, the rollback of the public sector, the rejection of emancipatory processes, and the dismantling of policies promoting equality and the protection of rights,” states the analysis.
For Daniela Arteaga, author of *Freedoms at Risk,* the rise of the radical right and the emergence of political organizations in the political life of countries in the region are part of a neoliberal backlash driven by global economic elites seeking to curb the progress of movements fighting against the exploitation of people and territories.
