The Rise of the Right-Against-Rights in Latin America

With the new millennium, Latin America experienced an expansion of rights to those excluded historically, culturally, socially, economically, and politically. Yet this veritable rights revolution unleashed a right-wing backlash to roll back rights, undermining democratic values and replacing them with polarized and often violent conflict. This right-wing mobilization is not comprised only of the historically powerful military, economic, religious, or political elites, as it once did. It unites previously incompatible groups such as Catholics and Protestants, the rich and the poor, against advances in social, cultural, and economic rights. This Latin American right-against-rights mobilizations involve elite and non-elite alliances in (i) counter-movements that aim to roll back rights gains by social movements, (ii) uncivil movements that mobilize to eliminate (violently or through legal disputes) rights seekers, and (iii) radical neoliberals motivated behind the protection of the rights, privileges, and prerogatives of economic elites. This presentation provides preliminary results for a project covering seven Latin American countries with a network of researchers across the region. A brief focus on the case of Chile is also provided to explain how this mobilisation develops in a particular context. By exploring who is behind the right-against-rights in Latin America, where and why, and with what impact, this project crosses disciplinary and geographic knowledge frontiers.