{"id":177999,"date":"2026-01-05T12:23:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raed.academy\/?p=177999"},"modified":"2026-01-05T12:27:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:27:43","slug":"falsehoods-corruption-and-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raed.academy\/en\/falsehoods-corruption-and-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Falsehoods, corruption, and hope"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Enrique

Enrique Sada<\/p><\/div>\n

Mexican historian Enrique Sada<\/strong>, a regular contributor to the Royal European Academy of Doctors<\/strong> (READ), shares with the academic community a series of articles\u2014\u00abOn the Triumphant Revolution,\u00bb<\/strong> \u00abTrump and the Californization of the BBC,\u00bb<\/strong> \u00abA Tainted Crown,\u00bb \u00abRescuing Do\u00f1a Marina\u2013Malintzin,\u00bb\u00abBaseness,\u201d<\/strong> and \u00abA Cry for Freedom from the Nobel\u00bb<\/strong>\u2014published between 21 November and 12 December on the digital portal C\u00f3digo Libre<\/strong> and in the newspapers \u00abEl Siglo de Torre\u00f3n\u00bb<\/strong> and \u00abEl Siglo de Durango\u00bb<\/strong>. In these pieces, Sada examines episodes of Mexican and international current affairs and their historical connections.<\/p>\n

In \u00abOn the Triumphant Revolution,\u00bb the author criticizes the celebration of the Mexican Revolution as a kind of foundational legend rather than through the critical lens demanded by historical scholarship. \u00abAmong the customs inherited from the old regime and embraced with deep reverence by the new\u2013old regime is the commemoration of the much-questioned so-called Mexican Revolution\u2014an event typically celebrated with a parade in which the State spends enormous sums of public funds on a military display as entertainment for the general public, or simply so that political power may feel secure in retaining direct control, at will or on a whim, over the exclusive use of the nation\u2019s armed forces,\u00bb he argues.<\/p>\n

In \u00abTrump and the Californization of the BBC,\u00bb Sada addresses the controversy sparked by a documentary broadcast by the British public broadcaster BBC about Donald Trump<\/strong>, whose edited excerpts distorted his message to the brink of manipulation, prompting resignations by those responsible. \u00abIt all began with an episode of Panorama<\/strong>, a program in which two truncated excerpts from the speech delivered by the President of the United States four years ago\u2014separated by 54 minutes\u2014were presented in a contrived manner as if they were a single statement, resulting in a false transmission of his message and provoking a severe public, political, and institutional backlash,\u00bb he explains.<\/p>\n

In \u00abA Tainted Crown,\u00bb the READ contributor turns to another current controversy: allegations of fraud in the Miss Universe<\/strong> pageant, with a Mexican contestant at the center. \u00abWhat initially seemed like a small piece of good news amid the bleak panorama enveloping our country\u2014the surprise designation of Tabasco native F\u00e1tima Bosch<\/strong> as Miss Universe 2025\u2014very quickly turned into a warning plume of smoke, revealing dark clouds behind the sequins and festive glow of evening gowns. After the sudden resignation of three judges, allegations of fraud emerged, claiming that the contest had been rigged by none other than F\u00e1tima\u2019s father, a senior official at Pemex<\/strong>, who was reportedly exposed for allegedly awarding a direct contract from the oil company to the owner of Miss Universe in the amount of 745 million pesos,\u00bb he details.<\/p>\n

Sada devotes \u00abRescuing Do\u00f1a Marina\u2013Malintzin\u00bb to what he considers a partisan use of history in his country, reclaiming the figure of Edmundo O\u2019Gorman<\/strong>, a leading proponent of historiographical revisionism. \u00abIn the face of the immense mythomania imposed from the nineteenth century onward, following the predatory triumph of the self-styled \u2018pure liberal\u2019 faction\u2014which sought in the use and abuse of history not truth or science, but the indoctrination of generations of pliant Mexicans into a new state of affairs after 1867 through the publication of works such as the presumptuous Mexico Through the Centuries\u2014there emerged the dissemination of a substitute spirit of identity based not on who we truly are, but on what we are not,\u00bb he writes.<\/p>\n

\"\"In \u00abBaseness\u00bb, Sada employs sarcasm to comment on the presentation of the book Grandeza<\/em> by former Mexican president Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador<\/strong>. \u00abIt is hardly surprising that the book was rushed out amid journalistic revelations about the Tabasco cartel known as La Barredora and the arrest of one of its ringleaders in Paraguay. Hence it was promoted by Ad\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez, who, as the former president\u2019s putative \u2018brother\u2019 and publicly linked to that group, took advantage of the moment to purchase and distribute copies en masse at a multimillion-peso cost unjustifiable on a senator\u2019s salary. This also explains why the former president, as the book\u2019s owner, refused to undertake the customary editorial tour to promote Grandeza and instead immediately retreated back into the shadows (whether to his militarily protected ranch or elsewhere),\u00bb he notes.<\/p>\n

Finally, in \u00abA Cry for Freedom from the Nobel,\u00bb Sada welcomes the reappearance of Venezuelan opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado<\/strong> in Oslo, where she was emotionally reunited with her family and supporters after being recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize<\/strong>. \u00abAfter arriving from a long journey undertaken in secrecy, the 58-year-old Machado arrived too late to attend the official Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, which in her absence was symbolically received by her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa<\/strong>, who opened a moving acceptance speech by saying: \u2018We will be able to embrace her after 16 months!\u2019\u00bb he concludes.<\/p>\n