Programa Nuestra Voz: Viernes 23 de enero 2026

·1 hr 54 min·9 clips

Sociologist Montserrat Zagot calls social media 'a weapon of mass destruction' enabling conspiracy theories, misogyny, and racism.

1. 'Nuestra Voz' on Radio Monumental examines Costa Rica's undecided voter phenomenon and the proposed anti-troll legislation ahead of the country's 2026 elections. 2. Sociologist Dr. Montserrat Zagot and Jennifer Meléndez Aguilar, author of a 2022 IDESP-IDESPO study on inter-round voter behavior, join host Amelia as expert guests. 3. The episode asks why a growing share of Costa Ricans remain politically disengaged despite the high stakes of this electoral cycle. 4. Zagot traces political disaffection back to the elections in which Miguel Ángel Rodríguez won in the 1990s, when party affiliation began declining and abstention began rising. 5. She explains that the end of stable party identification, expansion of the number of candidates, and deteriorating social and economic conditions all reinforce each other. 6. Meléndez Aguilar found in her 2022 study that political socialization—how much a person discusses and engages with politics—was the single strongest predictor of indecision, outweighing age, sex, socioeconomic level, and religious belief. 7. The most recent second-round election reached a 40% abstention rate, the highest in Costa Rican history, with roughly 27-28% of eligible voters ultimately determining the president. 8. Zagot notes that approximately 65-70% of undecided voters fall between ages 18 and 49, and that the IDESPO survey released the previous day showed women with only primary or secondary education as the largest undecided cohort. 9. She links women's political disengagement to structural disadvantage: they were the first displaced from employment during the pandemic, face higher rates of domestic violence, and receive less state support. 10. The presence of approximately 20-21 presidential candidacies is identified by Zagot as contributing to voter confusion rather than democratic vitality, citing the University of Costa Rica debate where 17 candidates each had only 30-60 seconds to differentiate themselves. 11. Meléndez Aguilar recommends voters use debate footage, AI-assisted summaries of government plans, and trusted social media accounts to navigate information overload before February 1st. 12. Zagot argues these elections carry generational stakes because major institutions—education, health, judicial appointments to the constitutional court—are in transition. 13. The program transitions to deputy Gilberto Campos, who presents the 'Ley contra la Manipulación de la Opinión Pública y la Voluntad Popular,' commonly called the Ley Antitrol. 14. Campos names specific precedents: the 2016 U.S. elections involving Russian troll farms, Jair Bolsonaro's Brazilian campaign, the Brexit vote, and Vietnamese troll farms detected in the Costa Rican electoral process through a report by El Financiero. 15. He also references troll activity originating from Vietnam appearing in the official social media accounts of Costa Rica's current president in support of that administration. 16. Digital law specialist Mauricio París explains that modern troll farms are AI-driven, coordinating thousands of fake accounts that activate simultaneously and like-bomb each other to manufacture artificial consensus. 17. París reveals that these services are supplied by established domestic and international communication agencies, and that public political debt financing ('deuda política') is reportedly being used to contract them—making the activity currently legal. 18. He warns that even if the law passes, conviction will be extremely difficult because prosecutors must identify who paid for the services, through which intermediaries, and in which jurisdiction—challenges he predicts will doom most cases before trial. 19. The tone is panel-interview format, combining academic analysis with real-time listener commentary, and the host bridges both segments with pointed follow-up questions. 20. Listeners interested in Latin American electoral politics, digital disinformation law, or Costa Rican civic culture will find the episode most useful; those seeking entertainment or light content will not.

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