AI-generated videos flood Colombia’s presidential campaign with electoral fantasies
Analysis Summary
This article describes how Colombian presidential candidates are using AI-generated videos in creative and low-cost ways to connect with voters, often through exaggerated or fantastical imagery like dancing tigers and fruit characters. It suggests these videos are not meant to deceive, but to express emotions and bypass traditional campaign spending, making politics more accessible. While presented as fun and symbolic, the article downplays concerns that normalizing fake content could make it harder to spot more dangerous disinformation in the future.
FATE Analysis
Four dimensions of psychological manipulation: how content captures Focus, exploits Authority, triggers Tribal identity, and engineers Emotion.
Focus signals
"Colombia is experiencing its first presidential campaign in which every candidate has artificial intelligence at their fingertips — though each uses it in markedly different ways."
The article opens with a novelty spike by framing the Colombian election as historically unique due to the widespread use of AI in campaigning. This captures attention by emphasizing technological firsts and unprecedented campaign tactics.
"social media has been flooded above all by the output of two campaigns."
The use of 'flooded' suggests an overwhelming, attention-grabbing volume of AI content, creating a sense of urgency and scale around the phenomenon.
Authority signals
"“These videos aren’t trying to show reality, but a feeling,” says Juan Diego Castañeda, co-director of the Karisma Foundation, an NGO that monitors the use of technology in power."
The article cites a named expert from a credible NGO to provide context and interpretation of the AI videos. While this adds analytical weight, it is used to explain rather than shut down debate, fitting standard journalistic sourcing.
"“I find this troubling, because it reinforces the prejudice and persecution of leftist parties, which are accused of being affiliated with guerrillas,” says Castañeda of Karisma."
An expert is quoted to highlight a potential ethical issue with the content of the videos. This is a measured appeal to expertise to underscore a societal concern, not to manufacture false consensus or authority-driven persuasion.
Tribe signals
"a narrative that divides the world into “them” and “us.”"
The article explicitly identifies that AI videos, particularly those of De la Espriella, construct a binary worldview. The framing acknowledges that the content weaponizes identity into political in-groups and out-groups, a core tribal mechanism.
"In some videos by Valencia and De la Espriella, Cepeda is shown as a guerrilla fighter or an ally of the guerrillas."
The article highlights how political identities are transformed into dangerous tribal markers — equating political opposition with armed insurgency — which in Colombia’s historical context is deeply incendiary and used to delegitimize opponents.
"Supporters of Petro are rotten bananas, and Abelardo de la Espriella is a plantain too, just disguised as a coconut."
The metaphor creates artificial tribal divisions by assigning symbolic identities to political groups and implying that seemingly different opponents are secretly aligned, reinforcing an 'us versus them' narrative through caricature.
Emotion signals
"“I find this troubling, because it reinforces the prejudice and persecution of leftist parties, which are accused of being affiliated with guerrillas,” says Castañeda of Karisma."
The article surfaces emotionally charged content — equating leftists with armed guerrillas — and frames it as troubling, indirectly amplifying the emotional weight and outrage potential of these portrayals, even while reporting on them critically.
"“A kitten has up to 300% more reach than hate,” the animal says while promoting his proposals. The clip has 2.7 million views on YouTube."
The article contrasts emotional appeals (the 'adorable cat' video) with negative emotions like hate, illustrating how campaigns deliberately spike positive emotions to gain traction. The inclusion of view counts reinforces the emotional payoff of viral content.
Narrative Analysis (PCP)
How the article reshapes thinking: Perception (what beliefs are targeted), Context (what information is shifted or omitted), and Permission (what behavior is being encouraged).
The article wants readers to believe that AI-generated campaign content in Colombia is primarily a tool for emotional storytelling and cost-effective political expression rather than deception. It frames AI usage as a democratizing force in politics—making sophisticated media accessible to all candidates—and presents the exaggerated, fantastical imagery as intentional, transparent satire or branding, not disinformation.
The article shifts the context of AI-generated political content from potential harm (e.g., deepfakes, misinformation) to innovation and accessibility. By emphasizing that the videos are deliberately artificial and not attempting realism, it makes the idea of AI in politics feel safer, more inclusive, and artistically legitimate—aligning it with viral internet culture rather than covert manipulation.
The article omits structural risks related to scalability and future technical advancement—specifically, that while current AI videos are obviously fake, their widespread normalization today could desensitize audiences to more sophisticated, realistic versions tomorrow. This absence makes the current use appear inherently benign without addressing how today’s 'harmless' trend could lower psychological defenses against future disinformation.
The reader is nudged to accept AI-generated political content as a legitimate, even creative, form of democratic expression. The tone encourages tolerance and even appreciation for absurd or symbolic campaign content, implicitly granting permission to overlook potentially inflammatory or reductive messaging (e.g., equating leftists with guerrillas) because it occurs within a 'fantasy' format.
SMRP Pattern
Four manipulation maintenance tactics: Socializing the idea as normal, Minimizing concerns, Rationalizing with logic, and Projecting blame.
"Candidates are using AI to create viral, cartoonish personas—like a pineapple candidate or a dancing tiger—which normalizes the idea that political discourse can and should resemble internet memes, thereby socializing extreme simplification and surrealism as acceptable campaign norms."
"The article downplays serious implications when stating that depictions of Iván Cepeda as a guerrilla fighter 'reinforce prejudice' but are presented in a context where 'it doesn’t surprise me' and treated as part of a broader, playful trend—minimizing the historical danger of such smears in Colombia’s political violence."
Red Flags
High-severity indicators: silencing dissent, coordinated messaging, or weaponizing identity to shut down debate.
"The article highlights how Paloma Valencia’s campaign frames supporters of Petro as 'rotten bananas' and De la Espriella as a plantain disguised as a coconut—turning political affiliation into symbolic identity categories based on arbitrary, dehumanizing labels, thus weaponizing identity through AI-generated allegory."
Techniques Found(5)
Specific propaganda techniques identified using the SemEval-2023 academic taxonomy of 23 techniques across 6 categories.
"the far-right candidate, the criminal lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella"
Describing a candidate as a 'criminal lawyer' uses emotionally charged language that frames him negatively by implying a connection to crime, beyond merely stating his profession as a defense attorney. This adds a derogatory connotation without confirming criminal behavior on his part.
"a conspiracy theory that would be inconceivable outside AI"
Describing De la Espriella’s narrative as 'a conspiracy theory that would be inconceivable outside AI' exaggerates the plausibility and uniqueness of the claim, implying it is so extreme that it could only exist in artificial imagery. This dramatizes the content beyond documented reality for rhetorical effect.
"Supporters of Petro are rotten bananas"
The phrase 'rotten bananas' to depict supporters of Petro uses emotionally loaded and negatively charged imagery to delegitimize a political group, associating them with decay and worthlessness, thus framing them as undesirable or harmful.
"Cepeda is shown as a guerrilla fighter or an ally of the guerrillas"
The description that 'Cepeda is shown as a guerrilla fighter or an ally of the guerrillas' in campaign videos connects him to a historically vilified and stigmatized group in Colombia, implying disloyalty or extremism without evidence, thereby undermining his reputation through symbolic linkage.
"an audio clip shared by the labor minister that purported to capture Senate president and opposition politician Efraín Cepeda plotting with the national registrar to commit fraud"
The mention of an AI-generated audio clip 'purported to capture Senate president and opposition politician Efraín Cepeda plotting with the national registrar to commit fraud' introduces suspicion about electoral integrity and credibility without confirming authenticity, thus casting doubt on the individual’s honesty or legitimacy.