Petro warns of ‘technofascism’ at UNAM and urges Mexico to deepen its political process

Gustavo Petro used a speech at Mexico’s National Autonomous University to contrast Mexico’s political trajectory with Colombia’s. Mexico, he said, has sustained progressive government through several consecutive periods and should now deepen that process.

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Mexico is in a better process than ours, it has achieved several consecutive periods, and it must be deepened.

“Mexico is in a better process than ours, it has achieved several consecutive periods, and it must be deepened,” Petro said. He called for a broader examination of where the process should go, as well as the dangers and risks facing it.

The former Colombian president described his own country in sharply different terms. “Although progressivism won, technofascism governs,” he said, presenting Colombia as a warning for progressive movements in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.

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Although progressivism won, technofascism governs.

Petro said a conversation with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had prompted him to reflect on the ideas of progressivism and humanism. He argued that politics should be filtered through “humanity and life,” concepts he said do not exactly mean socialism or progressivism, although they contain both.

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Today I would call it, and this came out of a conversation with the current president, something that has just happened, we talked about progressivism, but perhaps we should talk more about humanism.

He also criticized progressive social and political movements for acting without understanding the world in which their political processes unfold. Petro praised UNAM’s public and free character, and said the institution offered a setting for examining the region’s political direction and the challenges confronting it.

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Humanity and life is the filter for defining the concrete policies of a government or the policy proposed by a political or social movement.