Max Colodro
Max Colodro | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Director of Studies of the Ministry General Secretariat of the Presidency | |
| In office March 2002 – March 2004 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1967 Santiago, Chile |
| Political party | Party for Democracy (1999–2006) |
| Alma mater |
|
| Occupation | Pundit |
| Profession | Sociologist Philosophy |
Max Colodro Riesenberg is a Chilean sociologist and scholar dedicated to political analysis. He has been pundit in media outlets like Radio Agricultura, El Líbero, Canal 13, La Tercera, among others.[1][2][3][4]
A former communist, Colodro has stood out for holding an independent centre-left liberal stance.[5][6] Nevertheless, since 2017, he has also endorsed some centre-right political forces.[7][8]
Colodro has stood out as an analyst for his critical and independent perspective, shaped by his personal background and interdisciplinary training in politics, philosophy, and communication. His practical and academic experience has enabled him to provide deep analyses of Chilean political realities.[9]
Early life
Son from the first marriage of economist and businessman Marco Colodro (currently married to psychoanalyst Susan Mailer, daughter of the late American writer Norman Mailer) and economist Nora Riesenberg, Max spent his early years in Paris, where his parents pursued their doctorates.[10]
Upon returning to Chile during the Popular Unity, his father joined the Central Bank as vice president and his mother worked at the General Secretariat of Distribution alongside General Alberto Bachelet.[10] In September 1973, the Colodro-Riesenberg couple, both Communist Party (PC) members, went into exile with their children after the 1973 coup d'état. They settled in Mexico City.[10]
In 2016, he stated that «I grew up as a Mexican boy who spoke like El Chavo del Ocho. I attended a leftist school alongside children of Chilean, Argentine, Uruguayan, and Brazilian exiles. I never felt like a foreigner».[10] In Mexico, his father was close to the future President of Chile, Ricardo Lagos.[10]
At 14 or 15 years old, he began his interest in literature, regularly reading the newspaper Fortín Mapocho, as well as texts on philosophy, Karl Marx, and Vladimir Lenin. At 16, he joined the Communist Youth, stating: «My family were activists, my parents' friends were activists, and my friends were activists. If it wasn’t the Communist Party, it was another left-wing party».[10]
In 1987, he joined the University of Chile School of Sociology, from which he graduated in 1992. During this period, Colodro began to have serious doubts about continuing in the PC, resigning in 1991.[10] The fall of the Berlin Wall, the dismantling of the Soviet Union, and the «inability of the Communist Party to address the crisis that socialism and the left were going through regarding their historical project» ultimately led him to left the party.[10] His parents had done the same a little earlier. This, he says, unleashed a «serious identity crisis» in him.[10]
Academic and media career
In 2002, under the government of Ricardo Lagos —the same friend of his father— he was appointed director of studies at the Ministry General Secretariat of the Presidency.[10]
In 2009, he was hired as a philosophy teacher in the Adolfo Ibáñez University,[10] where he still works. The same year, he supported Marco Enríquez-Ominami's first presidential candidacy in the then general election.[10] Then, in 2015, Colodro was appointed as the director of the university's master's program in Political Communication. There, Colodro has led, for example, two workshops: one on Martin Heidegger and Metaphysics. He also did the same at the Alberto Hurtado University on Philosophy and Psychoanalysis.[10]
In February 2022, he announced his vote in favor of the «Reject» option in the constitutional process led by the left,[11][12] which was precisely rejected months later in September.
References
- ^ "Columna de Max Colodro: Excepcionalidad Chilena". La Tercera. 25 January 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
- ^ "Columna de Max Colodro: "Cría ojos"". Emol. 29 March 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
- ^ "Colodro y Jara por relaciones diplomáticas con Venezuela y la prisión preventiva de Jadue". Canal 13. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
- ^ "Colodro y Álamo por Caso Hermosilla y las reacciones del mundo político". Canal 13. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
- ^ "La centroizquierda en Chile: ¿Cómo se llegó a esto? ¿Cómo se sale? 2 (audio)". Centro de Estudios Públicos. 5 July 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
- ^ "Max Colodro: «Un sector importante de centroizquierda va a decir públicamente que no apoyará una candidatura comunista»". El Líbero. 18 July 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
- ^ "Max Colodro y el efecto Adolfo Ibáñez: ex comunista se abre a apoyar a Felipe Kast". El Mostrador. 16 July 2017. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
- ^ "Max Colodro: "Evelyn Matthei necesita generar un punto de inflexión radical"". Ex-Ante. 4 August 2025. Retrieved 7 August 2025.
- ^ "Max Colodro y resultados de la PAES: "La izquierda destruyó la educación pública"". Canal 13. 5 January 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m ""Para mí, las mujeres siempre van a ser una utopía"". La Tercera. 13 January 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2025.
- ^ "Max Colodro sobre la Convención: "Hoy día me siento más inclinado al rechazo que a la aprobación"". Ex-Ante. 26 February 2022. Retrieved 7 August 2025.
- ^ "Max Colodro: Si gana el apruebo tendremos una economía cada vez más parecida a la de Argentina". El Líbero. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2025.