Spanish and Latin American right-wing politicians found Madrid Forum to counter leftist Puebla group

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Eduardo Bolsonaro (son of the Brazilian president), Keiko Fujimori (former presidential candidate in Peru) and Jose Antonio Kast (leader of the Republican Party of Chile) are among the most prominent representatives of this new alliance, united by their firm opposition to leftist governments.

Vox’s flagship was the so-called Madrid Charter, a manifesto alerting to a purported “advance of communism” in the Ibero-Sphere, part of which has already been “hijacked by communist-inspired totalitarian regimes, supported by drug trafficking, under the umbrella of the Cuban regime.”

Vox president Santiago Abascal announced his intention to deliver the letter, which has collected over 8,000 signatures, a “permanent structure and an annual action plan.” To this end, the Madrid Forum is to be launched as a new international organization.

Its goal is to become an alternative to the São Paulo Forum and the Puebla Group, the two Latin American leftist platforms: the first comprises political and social forces, from the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) to the Communist Party of Cuba; the second a handful of leftist politicians, such as Alberto Fernández, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, Pepe Mujica, and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Abascal talks to public figures individually, which has enabled him to make surprising approaches, such as to former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana.

Representatives of the new movement attended the inauguration of Ecuador’s new president, conservative Guillermo Lasso; in Colombia, they were welcomed by ex-president Álvaro Uribe, and in Lima by Keiko Fujimori.

Their first trip to the Americas occurred in January 2020, when they met with Ministers of then-interim President Jeanine Áñez in La Paz.