Members of the Arrupe Observatory of the University of San Francisco participated in a panel discussion on the 2020 U.S. presidential elections with more than 60 students, professors, and alumni from the Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla in Mexico.

This panel included interventions by Enrique Bazán Ed.D, María Autrey M.A, and Ana Karen Barragán all members of the Arrupe Observatory, and by Natalia Mora who graduated from Ibero Puebla and is currently working at the Red Cross in Chicago, Il. This event was moderated by Juan Luis Hernández Avendaño, Viceprovost of the Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, and featured significant participation from IBERO Puebla students in International Relations and Political Science.

Together, they offered their perspectives and concerns on the current election results, the unique context and history of the United States, the keys to the election, the characteristics of the current administration, and the political profile and behavior of the current president.

The major concerns from the Ibero in Puebla, Mexico asked the panel to talk on where:

• The apparent fragile democracy in the United States today.
• The Mail voting system and distrust of citizens and misinformation from the current administration.
• The apparent weakening of the democratic party.
• The influence and exacerbation of racism in the country.
• The Latino vote.
• The massive support for the current president, the leadership model that Donald Trump has put forward as President of the United States.

During the conversation, special attention was placed on the rising wave of populist governments in western democracies and how Donald Trump is just one of many examples of demagogue figures governing the world. The conversation also circled around racism and how the world is coming to see the United States as a synonym of racism. For that matter, the electoral college’s racist history was discussed and the recent uprising around George Floyds and Breonna Taylor’s deaths, and how a movement has been rising across the country that fights for Black lives.

Conversations such as this strengthen international collaboration and offer Jesuit students a global perspective central to the Jesuit experience. This is set up to be one of many more collaborations between the Arrupe Human Rights Observatory from the University of San Francisco with the Ibero Puebla and other Universities across the Global Jesuit Network.