El retorno de Los Reyes Taumaturgos: un análisis del discurso presidencial en México y Brasil durante la emergencia del COVID-19 en el 2020

• Autores: David Ramírez Plascencia
• Localización: Doxa Comunicación: revista interdisciplinar de estudios de comunicación y ciencias sociales, ISSN 1696-019X, ISSN-e 2386-3978, Nº. 41, 2025, págs. 213-230
• Idioma: español
• DOI: 10.31921/doxacom.n41a2355
• Títulos paralelos:
  • The Return of The Thaumaturge Kings: an Analysis of Presidential Discourse in Mexico and Brazil during the COVID-19 emergency in 2020
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    Este trabajo analiza el discurso utilizado por los presidentes López Obrador en México y Jair Bolsonaro en Brasil durante la irrupción de la pandemia del año 2020. Ambos casos guardan importantes similitudes: los dos líderes mantuvieron una actitud negacionista hacia la enfermedad, tratando de mantener su popularidad y contradiciendo los argumentos científicos sobre el impacto de la pandemia. Este artículo se basa en el Análisis Crítico del Discurso (ACD), el trabajo de campo recopila información publicada en perfiles de redes sociales y noticias en línea. Los resultados mostrarán cómo la aprobación pública presidencial se centró en la construcción de un discurso alternativo, basado en noticias falsas, uso de redes sociales y polarización política que exalta la figura de un presidente mesiánico con poderes sobrenaturales.

  • English

    This paper analyzes the public discourse employed by presidents López Obrador in Mexico and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil during the outbreak of the 2020 pandemic. The two cases hold important similarities: throughout the first outbreaks, both leaders had a negationist and disdained attitude towards the disease, trying to maintain their popularity by contradicting the scientific arguments about the impact of the pandemic. This article centers on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the fieldwork focused on gathering information published on social media profiles and online news. Outcomes will show how the presidential public approval stood in the construction of alternative public discourse, based on fakes news, social media and political polarization that praises a messianic president with supernatural powers.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Agren, D. (2020). Mexican President López Obrador draws doctors’ ire. The Lancet, 395, 1601. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31198-3
  • Badillo, D. (2020, March 21). AMLO y sus polémicas declaraciones sobre el coronavirus. El Economista. Available at https://tinyurl.com/3d4y3cyy
  • Biswas, K. (2020, February 4). How the Far Right Became Europe’s New Normal. The New York Times. https://tinyurl.com/e4dy6cev
  • Breeze, R. (2011). Critical discourse analysis and its critics. Pragmatics, 21(4), 493-525. https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.21.4.01bre
  • Bloch, M. (1961). Les rois thaumaturges. Armand Colin.
  • Blofield, M., Hoffmann, B., & Llanos, M. (2020). Assessing the Political and Social Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis in Latin America. GIGA...
  • Boberg, S., Quandt, T., Schatto-Eckrodt, T., & Frischlich, L. (2020). Pandemic Populism: Facebook Pages of Alternative News Media and...
  • Brainard, J., & Hunter, P. R. (2020). Misinformation making a disease outbreak worse: Outcomes compared for influenza, monkeypox, and...
  • Brown, H., Guskin, E., & Mitchell, A. (2012, November 28). The Role of Social Media in the Arab Uprisings. Pew Research Center’s Journalism...
  • Brubaker, R. (2021). Paradoxes of populism during the pandemic. Thesis Eleven, 164(1), 73-87.
  • Campos-Herrera, G., & Reguero, S. U. de. (2019). Populism in Latin America: Past, Present, and Future. Latin American Politics and Society,...
  • Carlo, J. D., & Kamradt, J. (2018). Bolsonaro e a cultura do politicamente incorreto na política brasileira. Teoria e Cultura, 13(2),...
  • Chihu Amparan, A. (2020). Teoría de los marcos del discurso en los spots de López Obrador en 2018. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas...
  • De Almeida, T. (2020). Trust and Populism: The vote for Bolsonaro. [Political Science Theses, Georgia State University]. https://tinyurl.com/2xasm5f4
  • Depoux, A., Martin, S., Karafillakis, E., Preet, R., Wilder-Smith, A., & Larson, H. (2020). The pandemic of social media panic travels...
  • Engesser, S., Ernst, N., Esser, F., & Büchel, F. (2017). Populism and social media: How politicians spread a fragmented ideology. Information,...
  • Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. Pearson Education.
  • Farkas, J., & Schou, J. (2019). Post-Truth, Fake News and Democracy: Mapping the Politics of Falsehood. Routledge.
  • Font, N., Graziano, P., & Tsakatika, M. (2021). Varieties of Inclusionary Populism? SYRIZA, Podemos and the Five Star Movement. Government...
  • Goodman, J., & Carmichael, F. (2020, June 26). Coronavirus: 5G and microchip conspiracies around the world. BBC News. https://tinyurl.com/4zknsdsz
  • Grigera, J. (2017). Populism in Latin America: Old and new populisms in Argentina and Brazil. International Political Science Review, 38(4),...
  • Guterson, H. (2017). From Brexit to Trump: Anthropology and the rise of nationalist populism. American Ethnologist, 44(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.12469
  • Haynes, S., Gunia, A., Moon, K., Nugent, C., & Shah, S. (2021, November 5). How Activists Around the World Are Fighting for Justice. Time....
  • Jaworsky, B. N., & Qiaoan, R. (2021). The Politics of Blaming: The Narrative Battle between China and the US over COVID-19. Journal of...
  • Jones, R. H., Chik, A., & Hafner, C. A. (2015). Introduction Discourse analysis and digital practices. In R. H. Jones (Ed.), Discourse...
  • Kellner, D. (2016). American Nightmare: Donald Trump, Media Spectacle, and Authoritarian Populism. Sense Publishers.
  • Lafuente, J., & Beauregard, L. P. (2020, julio 1). El 68% aprueba el mandato de López Obrador, pese a rechazar su gestión de la inseguridad...
  • Lasco, G., & Curato, N. (2019). Medical populism. Social Science & Medicine, 221, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.12.006
  • Lin, C. A. (2020). A Year like No Other: A Call to Curb the Infodemic and Depoliticize a Pandemic Crisis. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic...
  • Litewka, S. G., & Heitman, E. (2020). Latin American healthcare systems in times of pandemic. Developing World Bioethics, 20(2), 69-73....
  • Londoño, E., & Darlington, S. (2018, October 28). Jair Bolsonaro Wins Brazil’s Presidency, in a Shift to the Far Right. The New York Times....
  • Lopez-Chau, A., Valle-Cruz, D., & Sandoval-Almazan, R. (2019, June 18). Analyzing Polarization through Social Media with Artificial Intelligence:...
  • Magazzù, G. (2022). An Ideological Analysis of the Former President Donald Trump’s Tweets During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Testo e Senso, (25),...
  • Miró-Llinares, F., & Aguerri, J. C. (2023). Misinformation about fake news: A systematic critical review of empirical studies on the phenomenon...
  • Moffitt, B. (2016). The Global Rise of Populism: Performance, Political Style, and Representation. Stanford University Press.
  • Moreira Ramalho, T. (August 8, 2023). Podemos and Syriza, the End of an Era? Green European Journal. https://tinyurl.com/4wmtvm67
  • Mori, L. (August 19, 2020). Decir que los pobres de derecha son estúpidos es arrogante. A los que tienen hambre, la ideología les queda lejos....
  • Mudde, C. (2017). Populism an Ideational Approach. In C. R. Kaltwasser, P. A. Taggart, P. O. Espejo, & P. Ostiguy (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook...
  • Neto, U. T. (2020). Bolsonaro, Populism and the Fascist Threat: The Role of Human Rights Defenders in Protecting Brazilian Democracy. Kairos:...
  • Oré, D. (2020, October 14). Mexican president’s anti-corruption drive buffeted by scandals. Reuters. https://tinyurl.com/362f8zfd
  • Persson, E., Ferlie, E., & Baeza, J. (2022). ‘This is just a little flu’: Analysing medical populist discourses on the Covid-19 pandemic...
  • Phillips, D. (2020, October 10). «He became a hero»: Bolsonaro sees popularity surge as Covid-19 spreads. The Guardian. https://tinyurl.com/aevd5uka
  • Prier, J. (2017). Commanding the Trend: Social Media as Information Warfare. Strategic Studies Quarterly, 11(4), 50-85. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429470509-7
  • Pulido, C. M., Villarejo-Carballido, B., Redondo-Sama, G., & Gómez, A. (2020). COVID-19 infodemic: More retweets for science-based information...
  • Reuters. (2020, September 1). Mexican president gains popularity during pandemic: Poll. Reuters. https://tinyurl.com/mr2hpzf2
  • Ríos, A. M. (2021). COVID-19 in Latin America & Caribbean: Deaths by country (State of Health). Statista. https://tinyurl.com/48x72axm
  • Rodríguez-Pose, A., Terrero-Dávila, J., & Lee, N. (2023). Left-behind versus unequal places: Interpersonal inequality, economic decline...
  • Rogers, K., Hauser, C., Yuhas, A., & Haberman, M. (2020, April 24). Trump’s Suggestion That Disinfectants Could Be Used to Treat Coronavirus...
  • Salaverría, R., Buslón, N., López-Pan, F., León, B., López-Goñi, I., & Erviti, M.-C. (2020). Desinformación en tiempos de pandemia: Tipología...
  • Schaub, M., & Morisi, D. (2020). Voter mobilisation in the echo chamber: Broadband internet and the rise of populism in Europe. European...
  • Speed, E., & Mannion, R. (2020). Populism and health policy: Three international case studies of right-wing populist policy frames. Sociology...
  • Stargardter, G. (2019, October 9). Special Report: A surge in killings by police roils Bolsonaro’s Brazil. Reuters. https://tinyurl.com/2h423pvy
  • Steenvoorden, E., & Harteveld, E. (2018). The appeal of nostalgia: The influence of societal pessimism on support for populist radical...
  • Tavares, L. P., Júnior, F. L. de O., & Magalhães, M. (2020). Análise dos discursos do Presidente Jair Bolsonaro em meio à pandemia: O...
  • The Economist. (2021, September 4). From Congo to the Capitol, conspiracy theories are surging. The Economist. https://tinyurl.com/e4usepc8
  • Ulfgard, R. V., & Villanueva, C. (2020). The power to transform? Mexico’s ‘Fourth Transformation’ under President Andrés Manuel López...
  • Van Dijk, T. (2014). Discourse and Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Approach. University of Cambridge.
  • Van Dijk, T. (2015). Critical Discourse Analysis. In D. Tannen, H. E. Hamilton, & D. Schiffrin (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis...
  • Vieten, U. M. (2020). The “New Normal” and “Pandemic Populism”: The COVID-19 Crisis and Anti-Hygienic Mobilisation of the Far-Right. Social...
  • Weiss, G., & Wodak, R. (2003). Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory and Interdisciplinarity. Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230288423
  • Wharton Business Daily. (2020, August 17) How Social Media Is Shaping Political Campaigns. University of Pennsylvania. https://tinyurl.com/nsc9t5av
  • Wodak, R. (2015). The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean. SAGE.