At least 12 far-right political and social groups are active in the country, including FRENA and the National Front for the Family, according to the international organization Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE).
The association highlights in its report “Extremist groups and far-right hatred in Mexico” that these groups, which are mainly characterized by promoting racist, xenophobic, anti-LGBTQ+ or anti-abortion positions, are part of “new far-right movements with worrying international connections and in particular with American and European far-right actors” such as the Spanish party Vox.
Among the main groups identified are the National Anti-AMLO Front (FRENA), co-founded by businessmen Pedro Luis Martín Bringas and Gilberto Lozano as a movement against President Andrés Manuel López Obrador; the National Front for the Family, which has spoken out against homoparental adoption and same-sex marriages; and the Mexican Nationalist Front, which GPAHE described as “anti-migrant” and “anti-Semitic,” which seeks to reinstate national military service and advocates for the reinstatement of the death penalty in Mexican legislation.
The organization warns that despite progress in LGBTQ+ rights and women’s reproductive freedoms in the country, “a violent reaction arose in the form of numerous anti-LGBT+, anti-abortion and xenophobic groups.”
Anti-rights actors and organizations seek to have political influence
In addition to the associations already mentioned, the GPAHE report points out that one of the groups is constituted as a local political party. This is Mexico Republicano in Chihuahua, which is recognized by the Chihuahua Electoral Institute, but could lose its registration after the elections of June 2 for not having reached the 3% of total votes required to maintain its status before the authority.
The organization Red Familia, according to Global Project, has also adopted positions against LGBTQ+ communities and against transgender people; and is close to actor Eduardo Verástegui, who in the last elections sought to run as an independent candidate for the Presidency of the Republic and has already anticipated that in 2025 he will try to form his own party.
Another association that has already had a direct political impact is the National Union of Parents of Families, the report states. It says, among its characteristics, that it has more than 100 years of experience and recently expressed its support for the so-called conversion therapies.
Likewise, the civil association Christian Lawyers Specialized in Mexico has ties to the right-wing group called El Yunque, and has filed legal appeals over the last few years against same-sex marriage, adoption by the LGBTQ+ community, and collaborated with the National Union of Parents of Families in the legal fight against free books from the SEP, according to GPAHE.
Association accused of organizing concerts with the presence of neo-Nazis
On the other hand, the organization in charge of the report points out that Unión, Nación y Revolución is an association linked to the Heidelberg Bookstore, which is based in Monterrey and distributes far-right texts, as well as Holocaust denial books.
This same group was responsible for promoting a concert held in January 2023 in Mexico City, in which neo-Nazi bands participated. “They also played in Ciudad Juárez during their tour of Mexico. A third concert in Guadalajara, scheduled for the day before their concert in Mexico City, was canceled due to public outrage,” documents GPAHE.
The other associations mentioned in the report are Patria Unida por un México Valiente, led by Alicia Galván López and Francisco Humberto López Vega; ProLife Army, which is positioned against abortion; Radical Roots as a group of “anti-trans, anti-LGBT+ and anti-gender anarcho-feminists” based in Toluca; and the Ibero-American Congress for Life and Family, founded by pastor Aarón Lara Sánchez.
Source: animalpolitico
