Mexican Actor and Politician, Eduardo Verástegui, Performs Fascist Salute At CPAC 2025; Mexican Neo-Nazis React

Mexican former actor and politician Eduardo Verástegui delivered a speech on February 21, 2025, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. In his speech, Verástegui falsely claimed that Trump had won the 2020 election, advocated for Trump to run for a third term in 2028, and railed against "woke ideology" and "globalist elites [who] seek to enslave our people" as the enemies of freedom. Verástegui's speech also condemned abortion, calling it "the greatest genocide of our time." In the middle of his speech, Verástegui then echoed Elon Musk's phrase - "My heart goes out to you" - while performing a fascist salute. Musk had uttered that phrase before also performing a fascist salute.

Verástegui posted the video of himself performing the fascist salute on his X (formerly Twitter) account on February 22 but has since denied that he supports Nazism and called journalists who criticized his salute liars. Additionally, in the wake of the buzz caused by his fascist salute, Verástegui was granted permission by Mexico's Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) to create the "Movimiento Viva Mexico" to begin the electoral process to become a registered political party. The INE is a public Mexican agency, responsible for standardizing and safeguarding the democratic electoral process, including the registration of political parties.

Several neo-Nazis online have responded to Verástegui's salute and political party authorization, claiming he is an imposter that is "[adopting] symbols of the third position."

This report will review social media posts from Verástegui and extremists discussing his fascist salute.

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Verástegui Performs Fascist Salute At CPAC 2025

On February 22 on X, Verástegui posted a video that appears to show himself performing a Nazi salute while giving a speech at CPAC on February 21, 2025. The salute came in the middle of his speech, as he repeated the same phrase – "My heart goes out to you" – that Elon Musk had said during a speech in January before he raised his arm in a fascist salute. Verástegui then said: "Fight, Fight, Fight." He wrote: "At my lecture in CPAC Washington I sent a message of unity and gratitude to the defenders of freedom. Me: 'My heart goes out to all of you,' followed by President Trump's war cry: 'Fight, fight, fight.' What did the leftists, progressives, and globalists want to understand or what distorted version of reality are they understanding? Eduardo is a Nazi! This is a Nazi salute! Don't they know another way? The same old story no longer fools anyone. You will not be able to distort my message: We will always defend freedom, no matter how much it costs!"

To see the video, click HERE, or see below.

Verástegui continued his attack on the media coverage of his fascist salute. On X, he posted a response on February 22 to journalist Alvaro Delgado Gomez's post, which read: "The actor @EVerastegui honors Hitler: The ultra-right shows sympathy with Nazis at CPAC with @elonmusk, @SteveBannon and the Mexican who wants a political party to Trump's liking." Verástegui replied: "The clown @alvaro_delgado worships stupidity. If he saw the video, he is lying shamelessly, and if he didn't see it, he is also exposing his lack of professionalism. What kind of a journalist are you? Clown."

In another X post, this one from February 24, Verástegui denies that he supports Nazim but does not explicitly deny giving a fascist salute. Instead, he posted: "I condemn Nazism, Communism, gender ideology, the culture of death, human trafficking, any abuse against children, any violation of human dignity. … Their lies, defamations, and attacks give us one more reason to keep fighting. Nobody said it would be easy."

That same day, the X account for Movimiento Viva Mexico, the group led by Verástegui, posted an announcement stating that the INE "has granted us authorization to begin the electoral processes to form the Viva Mexico Movement as a political party. Join the movement and be part of this story #MovimientoMexico."

Extremists' Reactions

On Telegram on February 25, the a Mexican antisemitic fascist group published a post displaying images of Elon Musk and Mexican actor Eduardo Verástegui with arms raised. The text reads: "Everyone wants to play the anti-system." Below them are images of Musk and Verástegui with an Orthodox Jewish man, with text reading: "Until it’s time to point out the system." The user wrote: "In political debate, radicalism tends to attract more attention than a moderate and sensible posture. That is why … the liberal right lacks its own identity, and, to remain relevant, adopts symbols of the third position without understanding their true meaning. …Neither the right nor the left can admit that both are constructions controlled by the same interests. If you want to identify a real radical alternative, see if it points out the real owners of the system. That is the starting point to know if you are facing an imposter or a genuine reactionary organization."

A Mexican neo-Nazi organization published an X post on February 24 replying to a post from a user announcing that the INE would allow the formation of Verástegui's political party. The neo-Nazi's post said: "1. Verástegui is a disgusting, promiscuous, AIDS-ridden sodomite. 2. He is controlled opposition and a subversive 3. He is only in it for the money and has not done anything significant with his hundreds of millions and contacts in the global elite. 4. We are in a civil war; a leader is needed, not an actor." The post featured a picture of Verástegui standing with an Orthodox Jewish man.

The neo-Nazi group continued its slamming of Verástegui with two other posts, writing: "5. He is a trans humanist ally and is following the script of the libertarian who is quietly hostile to Christianity. 6. He is a traitor who calls for a gringo invasion. 7. They only allow it because it is the third line of defense of controlled opposition, the fourth and last." And "The fourth and final line of controlled opposition defense if Verástegui fails with his subversion is the Mexican Nationalist Front and the Mexican National Socialist Party."