Aldo Cicardi Gonzalez has a degree in Social Communication from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Unidad Xochimilco, where he wrote a thesis on university film clubs as a form of resistance, which can be consulted at: https://repositorio.xoc.uam.mx/jspui/handle/123456789/24653. He is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Communication and Politics at the same institution with a research project on the rumor of the fumigation of the coronavirus and collective action in two socio-cultural contexts: Oaxaca and the State of Mexico. He is co-producer and editor of the documentary Opening paths to justice. Ayotzinapa Sentencepremiered in 2020 at the Cineteca Nacional and part of the official selection of the Festival Against Silence All Voices.

Realidades socioculturales

"They are spraying the coronavirus". Of conspiracy rumors in social networks and their political uses in Mexico.

  • Aldo Cicardi Gonzalez
  • Margarita Zires

In this article we examine a rumor that claimed that governmental sanitization measures against the coronavirus are actually strategies to infect the population and eliminate it. This rumor circulated in various regions of Mexico, generating multiple community protests. This study separates itself from an approach that condemns rumor and conspiracy theories for being false, and takes into account that these phenomena help provide an understanding of what is considered plausible or not in a certain context. We present the versions that circulated in San Antonio de la Cal, Oaxaca, as well as narrative elements that confer plausibility and implausibility. The study is based primarily on an analysis of conversations generated on Facebook and personal interviews. It shows that the rumor was connected to conspiracy narratives and local accounts that discussed a lack of confidence in the authorities. Furthermore, its political use by groups opposing the authorities is examined.