The Padilla Case and the crossroads of intellectuals

Abstract

For a long time there has been talk about the influence, importance and even the power that intellectuals have over the contexts in which they find themselves. But who are intellectuals? Armando Chaguaceda (2015) points out that intellectuals are a segment of the population that, in certain contexts, comprises those creators of meaning, capable of recording, reformulating and disseminating knowledge of art and science; they elaborate and transmit ideas setting parameters for civic debate within the public sphere; and they manage a relationship with certain values assumed by society as transcendent, such as justice, freedom, truth and reason.