Brazil’s Paulo Guedes to join Vargas Llosa-led foundation

Brazil’s former Economy Minister Paulo Guedes accepted an invitation to join the global council of the International Foundation for Freedom (FIL, in Spanish), according to newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. The offer was reportedly made by the Peruvian writer and 2010 Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, who currently leads the foundation.  

Mr. Guedes has just finished the six months of so-called “quarantine” to which high-ranking Brazilian officials are subjected after holding certain positions in the public administration. Now free to move on with his personal career, the controversial former economic tsar is reportedly to be the liberal institution’s representative in Brazil. 

Founded in 2002 under open markets and right-wing principles, the FIL describes itself as a place supporting the “bases of democracy, freedom and prosperity,” seeking to “gather intellectuals and think tank leaders from the U.S., Latin America and Europe.” 

Although more famous for his literary work, Mr. Vargas Llosa is also known for his remarkable political participation and is one of the FIL’s founders. The writer even ran for president for a center-right coalition in Peru’s 1990 elections, being defeated by future dictator Alberto Fujimori. 

As years went by, however, he used his influence to confront left-wing narratives and has been accused of abandoning his moderate positions in favor of a radical right-wing turn instead — which could have brought the Peruvian writer and Brazilian former minister closer. 

Sharing similar political and economic positions, Messrs. Vargas Llosa and Guedes already took part together in different international seminaries in 2018 and 2022. 

In recent elections, Mr. Vargas Llosa took a stand for Alberto Fujimori’s son Keiko against left-wing Pedro Castillo in Peru, for Jair Bolsonaro instead of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and also showed his support for Chile’s far-right candidate José Antonio Kast against Gabriel Boric. 

Online, however, people started calling Mr. Vargas Llosa’s support a “jinx” since none of his preferred candidates were elected in the countries’ respective runoffs.

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