Violence dressed up as heroism: the Latin American far-right and its discourse of hate

Abstract

This article analyses a series of memetic images that represent the heroism of the different leaders of the so-called “Latin American far-right”, and specifically, the main supporters of the First Latin American Conservative Conference: Kast (Chile), Vizcarra (Perú), Bolsonaro (Brasil), Abdo (Paraguay), Añez (Bolivia), Macri (Argentina) and Duque (Colombia). We study the main elements that constitute a specific concept of violent heroism via the collection of 48 images. The analysis is composed of two parts: 1. the detection of the connotative dimensions that are related to the legitimisation of violence; 2. the synthesis of the main categories found in the memes studied, according to the grounded theory methodology. Through this analysis we show that the memetic hero of the Latin American far-right would be characterised by receiving a divine call to save society, and in his journey a series of common symbols would be evident: strength and violent masculinity as forms of action and confrontation against evil, militarism as an ethical and aesthetic element in the organisation of the hero’s ethos, shine as an expression of differentiation, diverse cinematographic and pop symbols of appeal and relationship with historical superheroes, and the presence of humour as a form of dehumanisation of the political victims.