The relaunch of Paka Paka Next July brings a radical change in the skin and soul of the public children’s channel. Under the direction of Walter “Wally” Gómezillustrator with trajectory in comics and advertising and linked to referents of La Libertad advancesthe signal reflies its production with a decidedly libertarian imprint and a renewed aesthetic, which includes new logo, whitish zamba skin and foreign content.
The new programming combines classics with their own premieres such as “Argentinhitos”, “Cradle of Champions” And children’s debate formats as “the boys ask” and “sometimes yes, sometimes not.” There is also an ambitious animated chess program produced by the first channel animation unit. However, the focus is put in international incorporations, which reconfigure the identity of the signal: “Dragon Ball Z”, “World Trigger”, “Mouk”, “Bobby and Bill”, “Ultrazombies” and “Tuttle Twins”. The latter is the most controversial incorporation. Based on the books of the American Connor Boyack, the series presents the brothers Emily and Ethan with their Gabby anti -Castro grandmotherand exposes concepts of classical liberalism through figures such as Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman and John Locke. With a direct tone, the episodes criticize subsidies, the state education system, communism and defend the values of the free market.
Another crystal. The ideological turn is explicit. Paka Paka, originally designed with diverse and inclusive content, with programs such as “The amazing world of Zamba”, now bets on a “cultural battle” narrative in liberal code. Episodes with cartoons appear Karl Marx, Nicolás Maduro and winks to issues such as inflation, Bitcoin or “indoctrinanas” universities. One of the most commented cases is an episode in which Milton Friedman explains inflation with the phrase “More money, more price”, a fragment that was shared by President Javier Milei himself on social networks. Another shows Karl Marx asking for money for an autograph, in a direct satire about socialism.
The contrast to the previous Paka Paka is marked: explicit ideological direction, before “progre”, now liberal; Dominant presence of international content to the detriment of Argentine productions and a new institutional structure. The channel, which previously depended on the Ministry of Education, is now part of the Secretary of Media of the Presidency, aligning with the executive’s communicational strategy.
Opinions found
Criticism soon arrived. Cecilia VeledaDoctor in Sociology of Education, he warned: “You cannot have hostages to boys in the midst of ideological disputes of adults and personal obsessions of the president.” In social networks, Esteban Paulón He ironized: “educational content? Only if by ‘educational’ we understand that taxes are robbery, rights an exaggeration and that going to university is useless.” Even pro sectors, such as Silvana Giudicipresented projects to dissolve the channel, denouncing a use of public funds with “ideological functionality.” The journalist Martín Rodríguez Yebra was more direct: “In these drawings there is not a second in which children can get distracted. It is indoctrination from the first minute.”
This new version is part of a broader strategy of the government of Javier Milei To build a “new common sense”, especially among children. The incorporations of libertarian material are backed by their team and carefully managed by the Secretariat of Media. The eventual privatization of the channel, considered by some officials, reflects that it is perceived not only as an ideological tool, but as an asset with market value. All this occurs in a context of budget cuts in health, education and subsidies, and after the implementation of vouchers for private education, a plan that already reaches one million students and that is part of the educational project of Milei.
May 7, Walter Gustavo “Wally” Gómez, director of Paka Pakahe met with the presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni to shape the relaunch of the signal. On his Instagram he wrote: “Today I had the honor that the presidential spokesman receives me to talk about all the work that is being done in Paka Paka. Grateful for his reception and for a large Argentina again.” Gómez, illustrator and liberal cartoonist, leads a deep transformation of the channel grid with an emphasis on educational content with high ideological doses. Among the most commented incorporations, the return of the emblematic Zamba character, this time with a whiter skin and without his mestizo features. NEWS He tried to dialogue with the brand new director, who kindly replied that he is not making statements.
Paka Paka, before playful and educational refuge for boys, metamorphose in an ideological battlefield under the baton of Milei and Walter “Wally” Gómez. What was Zamba today competes with Friedman, crypto and criticisms of the State, all during central schedule. The channel is no longer a child’s “hiding game”, such as its Quechua etymology suggests, but a window of a political project that looks to the future: to educate civically from childhood, in liberal and anti -communist key.
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