Latin American Governments Slash Culture Budgets Amid Rightward Shift
As right-wing governments ascend in Latin America, culture ministries are undergoing significant changes. Argentine historian Pablo Stefanoni highlighted US electoral interference and a resurgence of the Monroe Doctrine. In Bolivia, President Rodrigo Paz reduced the number of ministries from 14 to 12, demoting culture to a vice-ministry, which drew criticism from Articulados Culturales. On 7 August, Colombia's Abelardo de la Espriella named Paola Holguín as culture minister. In December 2023, Argentina's Javier Milei transformed the culture ministry into a secretariat, slashing its budget. Chile's José Antonio Kast also reduced cultural funding by 9.8%. In Peru, Alberto Beingolea, culture minister under Keiko Fujimori, accused certain factions of taking control of the Lugar de la Memoria. In 2024, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele appointed Raúl Castillo, while Venezuela replaced culture minister Ernesto Villegas with Raúl Cazal in March and Alejandro López Rodríguez in August.
Key facts
- Bolivia cut its ministries from 14 to 12, eliminating the Ministry of Sustainable Tourism, Cultures, Folklore and Gastronomy and downgrading culture to a vice-ministry under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Articulados Culturales denounced the "complete exclusion of culture" from Bolivia's new state structure, warning the arts are "not an ornament"
- Colombia's Abelardo de la Espriella took office on 7 August and named Paola Holguín culture minister, describing her as "the warrior who is ready" to wage a culture war
- Javier Milei reduced Argentina's federal culture ministry to a secretariat after taking office in December 2023, and state support for the Venice Biennale now covers only the pavilion and logistics
- Chile's culture ministry lost around 9.8% of its budget, and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Santiago cancelled a León Ferrari retrospective after nearly three years of preparation
- Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes director Varinia Brodsky was dismissed in mid-September after announcing the exhibition's cancellation in June
- El Salvador's Nayib Bukele dismissed more than 300 culture ministry employees and dismantled the Monument to Reconciliation in San Salvador, inaugurated in 2017 to commemorate the 1992 peace accords
- Venezuela's Ernesto Villegas stepped down in March after nearly nine years as culture minister; Raúl Cazal lasted five months before Alejandro López Rodríguez was appointed in August
Entities
Artists
- Pablo Stefanoni
- Rodrigo Paz
- Abelardo de la Espriella
- Paola Holguín
- Javier Milei
- José Antonio Kast
- León Ferrari
- Varinia Brodsky
- Keiko Fujimori
- Alberto Beingolea
- Alberto Fujimori
- Nayib Bukele
- Raúl Castillo
- Nicolás Maduro
- Cilia Flores
- Delcy Rodríguez
- Ernesto Villegas
- Raúl Cazal
- Alejandro López Rodríguez
- Donald Trump
- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
- Flávio Bolsonaro
- George Washington
Institutions
- Ministry of Sustainable Tourism, Cultures, Folklore and Gastronomy
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- National Symphony Orchestra
- Bolivian Film and Audiovisual Development Agency
- Articulados Culturales
- Siart International Art Biennial
- Bolivia Design and Poster Biennial
- National Theatre Institute
- Venice Biennale
- Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Santiago
- Lugar de la Memoria, la Tolerancia y la Inclusión Social
- Sendero Luminoso
- Monument to Reconciliation
- Rómulo Gallegos Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
- Unesco
- The Art Newspaper
Locations
- Latin America
- Bolivia
- Colombia
- Argentina
- Chile
- Peru
- El Salvador
- Venezuela
- Brazil
- United States
- China
- Tiwanaku
- Santiago
- San Salvador
- Caracas
- Washington