Paraguay hosted the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a gathering of the global right, for the first time in mid-September. In attendance were members of US president Donald Trump’s inner circle, including his long-term foreign policy advisor Richard Grenell, and President Javier Milei of Argentina.
The Paraguayan president, Santiago Peña, gave a keynote address confirming the growing identification of his Colorado party administration with the global ultra-conservative movement. He emphasised that he would defend before the world his opposition to “free abortion”, “alternative ideas of the family” and “radical social experiments”.
Paraguay is the Latin American country most strongly aligned with the foreign policy of the Trump administration. It is one of only 12 countries in the world, and the only one in South America, to maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan. And in December 2024 it moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, which Trump officially recognised as the Israeli capital in 2017 to much international criticism.
