The New Order in Latin America: A Recipe for Disaster

Latin America has long been a testing ground for radical ideas and ideologies. However, the current convergence of tech-supremacism, corporate deregulation, and biometric surveillance is a particularly toxic brew. Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel’s recent investment in Argentina marks a new model of control that threatens to undo decades of social progress.

The far-right presidential candidates who have emerged victorious in recent elections - including those in Colombia and Peru - are eager to adopt this blueprint. They champion “tough-on-crime” narratives, align themselves closely with Washington, and push for the incorporation of artificial intelligence into law enforcement and security management. This ideological alignment is not just a coincidence; it’s also a testament to the influence of Trumpism in the region.

The Monroe Doctrine has been revived by Donald Trump as the “Trump Corollary”. The US National Security Strategy explicitly outlines the goal of expanding its list of regional allies while bolstering its own appeal as the Hemisphere’s economic and security partner of choice. Tech corporations are not just providing surveillance infrastructure; they’re also embedding themselves deep within state apparatuses.

Argentina has become a hub for this experiment, with Thiel’s presence and the introduction of the Super RIGI legislative framework creating a perfect storm. The Super RIGI project offers extreme corporate benefits to tech companies, including cheap energy, customs exemptions, and access to critical resources like water and land. This is not just about deregulation; it’s also about embedding Western-style capitalism as a form of cultural imperialism.

The idea that limited liability and free market economies are the sole sources of freedom ignores the complex histories of colonial exploitation and racialized violence that underpin these systems. The Dutch East India Company’s history serves as a stark reminder of how corporate power can be used to justify brutal oppression.

The Argentine government’s creation of a “Social Digital Twin” platform raises concerns about data protection, bias mitigation, and human oversight. Meanwhile, the expansion of biometric surveillance apparatuses in Argentina is alarming, with technologies being deployed asymmetrically against racialized populations. Predictive policing tools encode racial bias because they rely on over-policing in Black and Brown neighborhoods.

The convergence of these factors - tech-supremacism, corporate deregulation, and biometric surveillance - threatens to undo decades of social progress in Latin America. It’s a recipe for disaster that’s being cooked up in the region’s laboratories, with far-reaching implications for democracy, human rights, and the very notion of freedom.

The consequences of such a model are already visible in the US - from the Department of Defense’s reliance on Palantir Technologies to the expansion of biometric surveillance in cities like New York. The stakes are high, and the time for caution is running out.

What this means for Latin America is not just a return to authoritarianism; it’s also a re-imagining of the region as a testing ground for Western-style capitalism. As the Trump Corollary relies on its own intellectual infrastructure to justify this model, the danger is that Latin America will become a permanent laboratory for tech-supremacism - with disastrous consequences for democracy and human rights.

The next move is crucial: will the region’s governments resist this trend or succumb to it? Will tech corporations be held accountable for their role in embedding surveillance infrastructure within state apparatuses? The answers to these questions will determine the future of Latin America, and indeed the world.