Conservatives throughout Spain and Latin America offered words of condolence, outrage, and gratitude to conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on Wednesday following his public assassination, referring to him as a friend a “one of us.”
Kirk was assassinated by a killer whose identity remains unknown at press time during a speaking engagement on Wednesday afternoon at Utah Valley University. The commentator, television and radio host, and activist founded Turning Point USA, a nationwide advocacy group for conservative values with an emphasis on galvanizing conservative youth, and was a fixture on college campuses calling for Americans to engage in civil debate. He was 31 years old.
The most high-profile statement honoring Kirk’s legacy from Latin America came from libertarian Argentine President Javier Milei, who had met Kirk personally during a visit to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Kirk covered Milei’s presidential campaign enthusiastically on his program and supported his policies to cut down the size of the Argentine federal government.
“He was the victim of an atrocious assassination in the middle of a wave of left-wing political violence in the entire region,” Milei wrote in his statement expressing condolences. “The left is always, at all times and in all places, a violent, hate-filled phenomenon. The whole world lost an incredible human being.”
Also honoring Kirk, sharing a video of the commentator with Milei during their meeting, was Santiago Oría, a videographer with Milei’s Liberty Advances Party. Oría noted that noted that, during their meeting, Kirk referenced to Milei a video of the president describing all the government agencies he would shut down, identifying them and yelling, “¡afuera!” (“out!”).
“He knew the president’s ‘afuera!‘ Great guy. They killed one of us,” Oría wrote.
The Argentine conservative commentator Daniel Parisini, known commonly as “el Gordo Dan,” also honored Kirk on his podcast Tuesday evening – notably as Parisini, a staunch supporter of Milei, is often compared to Kirk in his home country and the Argentine left often referred to Kirk as “Yankee Gordo Dan.”
“He was an enormous resource for the right in the United States, many of us here informed ourselves about the news in the United States through Charlie Kirk. A very beloved guy, a very open guy,” Parisini described, emphasizing that Krik was “was a very open guy. He debated democrats, with leftists, in a respectful way and was not very provocative.”
Argentine leftists on social media used the news of Kirk’s death on Wednesday to threaten Parisini almost immediately, publishing messages such as “that was their Gordo Dan, hope it’s our turn next.”
In Venezuela, opposition leader María Corina Machado – who herself has faced over a decade of political violence from the socialist narco-regime of Nicolás Maduro, published an English-language tribute to Kirk.
“His assassination is a monstrous act that must be repudiated by all citizens of the world. The pillar of a democratic society is the sacred right to freedom of expression and political pluralism,” she wrote.
In Colombia, the conservative Democratic Center party also issued a statement condemning the assassination. The Democratic Center’s frontrunner presidential candidate, Miguel Uribe Turbay, was similarly assassinated in June, gunned down at a public campaign event by a child shooter. The party has faced a wide array assassination attempts and death threats targeting its candidates during the tenure of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the first socialist president in the country’s history.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the violent act that took the life of Charlie Kirk,” the party expressed. “His death reminds us that freedom, democracy, and effective security must always prevail over violence.”
In Brazil, Eduardo Bolsonaro, an exiled lawmaker and son of persecuted former President Jair Bolsonaro, expressed shock at the killing and gratitude to Kirk for having his father on his program.
“I had the honor of accompanying him in his work and know the greatness of his mission,” Eduardo Bolsonaro wrote. “Another conservative victim of hate and intolerance. At the same time as his political legacy was spreading, he never hesitated to open important dialogues, as in his program, where he received President [Bolsonaro].”
“Charlie Kirk was a brilliant man, a person of courage, faith, a solid moral base,” he continued. “He knew what he was doing and what he wanted.”
“He was more than a political military, as he spoke about topics far beyond politics. His success with question and answer videos at universities exposed the weakness of young people in environments dominated by the left,” Eduardo Bolsonaro noted, “and ended up becoming an example for other to follow, even outside the USA.”
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has not offered a statement of condolence at press time on his public accounts, but has republished videos of Kirk praising his governance on his television program. Bukele also condemned left-wing media in the United States for comments appearing to blame Kirk for his own assassination or suggest that a conservative killed him, writing, “you don’t hate the media enough.”
In Spain, the head of the conservative Vox party, Santiago Abascal, also paid tribute to Kirk and emphasized the assassination’s place on a growing list of incidents of left-wing violence.
“The assassination of Charlie Kirk shows the homicidal mania that dominates a great part of the Western left,” Abascal wrote. “Not just because of the repugnant crime, above all because of the impunity with which they justify it.”
Spanish conservatives set up candles and a makeshift memorial in front of the American embassy in Madrid on Wednesday to honor Kirk.
The Spanish have also organized a candlelight vigil scheduled for Thursday night to honor Kirk’s legacy.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Read the full article here