Foro Madrid: Conservatives leaders meet this week in Paraguay

This Thursday and Friday, June 12 and 13, the right wing of the Western Hemisphere will convene in Paraguay for the Foro Madrid (Madrid Forum), the most important annual regional gathering of Ibero-American conservatives.

Organized by Spain’s Fundación Disenso, the initiative will bring prominent conservative leaders to Asunción, including Chilean politician José Antonio Kast, Colombian presidential hopefuls Paola Holguín and María Fernanda Cabal, former Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo, and others.

The event will open with remarks from Santiago Abascal, president of the Disenso Foundation and the leader of Spain’s Vox party. He will also conclude the gathering by reading the Declaration of Asunción, a document reflecting the discussions and agreements reached among the conservative leaders.

Paraguayan President Santiago Peña will deliver the opening speech, followed by several members of his administration. Under Peña's leadership, Paraguay has become a reference point for right-wing movements around the world.

A large part of the VOZ team will also be present at this year’s edition. Our CEO, Orlando Salazar, will introduce a panel on freedom of expression, featuring our executive producer, Karina Yapor, and our editor, Karina Mariani.

I will also take part in a panel on Venezuela, where I’ll be speaking with Claudia Macero, communications chief for María Corina Machado. Macero spent over a year in asylum at the Argentine embassy in Caracas before being rescued in a U.S. extraction operation.

Alejandro Peña Esclusa, one of the foremost experts on the Sao Paulo Forum, will be in attendance. Also speaking will be Jorge Martín Frías, Member of the European Parliament and director of Fundación Disenso. Representing the U.S., Melissa Ford—director of the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI)—will also participate. AFPI is the American think tank most closely aligned with the Trump administration.