The Latin America Right Turn, as Argued From Madrid
LATIN AMERICA · ANALYSIS
Key Facts
- —Who is making it David Hatchwell Altaras, a Madrid businessman, and Pablo Kleinman, an Argentine-born media figure, in a recent podcast interview.
- —The argument Latin America has lived through socialism, rejected it, and is now the most optimistic part of the West.
- —The disclosure Hatchwell chairs the Genesis Prize selection committee, the body whose 2025 prize to Javier Milei seeded the Isaac Accords vehicle.
- —The catch The argument is coherent. Several of the facts offered in support of it are wrong or unverifiable.
- —What holds Paraguay’s Taiwan alignment, the 1975 Green March, and Spain’s unilateral shift on Western Sahara.
- —What does not Israel-Latin America membership claims, the framing of Chinese retreat, and a China anecdote attributed to the wrong leader.
A version of the Latin America right turn is being sold to American audiences from Madrid. Parts of it hold up, and parts of it do not survive a check.
A particular account of Latin America is being told to American audiences. It is told from Madrid, and it is worth taking seriously.
The region, in this telling, has already had its argument about socialism and settled it. Europe and the United States have not.
The two men making it are named and public. David Hatchwell Altaras is a Madrid businessman, and Pablo Kleinman is an Argentine-born entrepreneur and former Spanish-language radio host.
They set it out at length in a recent podcast interview. We checked the parts that can be checked.
The Latin America Right Turn They Describe
Their core claim is about sequence. Latin America ran the experiment first, and its voters know what the results were.
Kleinman makes a demographic point that is genuinely interesting. Argentina lowered its voting age to sixteen expecting young left-wing voters, and those voters elected Javier Milei.
Hatchwell adds that Milei’s authority rests on not being seen as corrupt. That, rather than the economics, is what buys a government time during an austerity programme.
Both argue the region now sees itself as part of the West. That framing matters more than it sounds, and it is broadly borne out by how the new governments talk.
Where the Argument Is Strongest
On Paraguay they are correct and specific. It remains Taiwan’s only South American ally, and President Santiago Pena reaffirmed that in Taipei in May 2026.
On the 1975 Green March they are accurate. Morocco moved some 350,000 people into the Spanish Sahara, and the territory changed hands.
On Spain’s later reversal they understate their own case. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez backed Morocco’s autonomy plan in a letter dated 14 March 2022, published first by the Moroccan palace.
There was no authorising vote. In April 2022 the Spanish Congress passed a non-binding motion rebuking the shift, supported by one of the government’s own coalition partners.
Where It Does Not Survive a Check
Hatchwell says Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador and Bolivia are following Argentina into the Israel-Latin America framework known as the Isaac Accords. They are not.
Argentina remains the only state party, and no accession mechanism exists. Ecuador opened an innovation office in Jerusalem rather than an embassy, and Bolivia’s restored ties date from December 2025 and are unrelated.
He describes Colombia’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights as the new government’s first decision. It came on 10 August 2026, three days after the inauguration.
The claim that Spain denied overflight rights to an Israeli aid flight bound for Colombia is unsourced. Spain has not commented, Israel declined to, and the story rests on a flight tracking screenshot.
The Gilinski family’s earthquake donation is reported at fifty million dollars. The pledge was 150 billion Colombian pesos, about US$48 million.
The China Passage Is the Weakest
Hatchwell attributes the 1992 southern tour that opened Shenzhen and Zhuhai to Xi Jinping. It was Deng Xiaoping, and Xi was a provincial official at the time.
He also says he arrived in China in 1982, three years after Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen was 1989, and he elsewhere dates his residence to 1992.
On Peru he names the Chinese-built deep water port as Chiang Kai. It is Chancay, and the US$3.5 billion is a multi-decade programme figure rather than money spent.
The wider framing is also inverted. Chinese direct investment in the region fell about 55 percent from its 2019 peak, but the new right-wing governments are not the reason.
Why the Errors Matter Here
None of this makes the underlying argument worthless. Regional politics has moved, and the movement is real.
It matters because these claims travel. They are repeated in English by audiences with no way to check a Peruvian port name or a Colombian peso figure.
There is also a disclosure that belongs in any account of this. Hatchwell chairs the selection committee of the Genesis Prize, whose 2025 award to Milei seeded the New York charity that promotes the Isaac Accords.
He is describing a diplomatic initiative he is institutionally connected to. That does not make him wrong, and it is context a reader is entitled to.
One Claim We Will Not Repeat
The interview also contains allegations about the private conduct of relatives of Spain’s prime minister. We have not published them.
They concern private individuals, they are unproven, and no public interest test we can apply justifies repeating them. Readers should treat their appearance elsewhere with the same caution.
What to Watch
The first marker is whether any second government formally joins the Israel framework. That single fact would settle most of the dispute above.
The second is Argentine growth. Hatchwell relays an official forecast of doubled output within five years on energy and mining, and that is a claim with a deadline.
The third is the Spanish election, which both expect around May 2027. Their reading of Latin America is, in the end, an argument about Spain.
More: Latin America news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is making this case about the Latin America right turn?
David Hatchwell Altaras, a Madrid businessman who chairs the Genesis Prize selection committee and the Fundacion HispanoJudia, and Pablo Kleinman, an Argentine-born entrepreneur and former Spanish-language radio host.
Which of their claims check out?
Paraguay’s continued recognition of Taiwan, the scale of Morocco’s 1975 Green March, and Spain’s 2022 reversal on Western Sahara, which happened without a parliamentary vote and was later rebuked by Congress.
Which do not?
That Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia have joined the Isaac Accords, that Spain blocked an Israeli aid flight to Colombia, the size of the Gilinski donation, and an account of China’s 1992 reforms that credits Xi Jinping rather than Deng Xiaoping.
Sources: Podcast interview transcript, Genesis Prize Foundation, Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, Red ALC-China and UNAM Cechimex, Boletin Oficial del Estado, eldiario.es, Publico, Instituto Nacional de la Seguridad Social, Rio Times.
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