"Benito Mussolini is named after Benito Juárez," López Obrador told the United Nations

The president of Mexico participated in the 75th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) virtually with a recorded message from Mexico City.

During the exposition of the political project that he heads, Andrés Manuel López Obrador highlighted the legacy of former President Benito Juárez, for whom he has expressed his total admiration on other occasions and recalled that the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini owes his name to the Benemérito de las Américas .

"We had the Second Transformation in the middle of the 19th century, very important and of global significance, the reform movement, led by a great leader, a liberal, the best president that there has been in our history, a Zapotec indigenous, Benito Juárez García. He was known as the Benemérito de las Américas, his behavior and fame was so important that Benito Mussolini bears that name because his father wanted him to be called as Benito Juárez, "said the Mexican president in his speech.

The association of ideas to talk about the notoriety of Benito Juárez in the world, using Mussolini as a resource, generated quite a stir and criticism through social networks.

More so since it is the 75th anniversary of the creation of the United Nations, an organization founded after the end of World War II and the fall of the front that formed Hitler's Nazi Germany, Mussolini's fascist Italy and Japan.

It is not the first time that the president uses the well-known fact that Mussolini's father named him Benito because of the admiration that many Italian and European socialists at the end of the 19th century felt for Juárez.

But doing it in a forum like the UN is superficial and in bad taste.

- Rafael Rojas (@librocrepusculo) September 22, 2020

He was known as the Benemérito de las Américas.

His behavior and fame were so important that Benito Mussolini bears that name because his father wanted him to be called Benito Juárez.

- Andres Manuel López Obrador, 2020, at a meeting of the UN General Assembly.

- Carlos Bravo Regidor (@carlosbravoreg) September 23, 2020

Great role of @lopezobrador_ before the UN today: He

obviously tried to flaunt Benito Juárez's fame, but it is insane to do so comparing him to Mussolini, a fascist war criminal responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

pic.twitter.com/udUXg9XSKX

- José Miguel Vivanco (@JMVivancoHRW) September 23, 2020

What do Benito Mussolini and Benito Juárez have to do with it?

According to various historians such as Guido Dorso, Renzo De Felice, Denis Mack Smith or Brenda Haugen, when the Italian dictator was born in 1883, "his father, the socialist Alessandro Mussolini, named his son Benito Amilcare Andrea in honor of Benito Juárez, a Mexican revolutionary; Amilcare Cipriani, Italian revolutionary and Andrea Costa, Italian socialist deputy ", points out Guido Dorso in his book

(Mauro Liistro Editore, 2018).

Benito Juárez ruled Mexico from 1857 to 1872. His figure is considered crucial in the formation of the Mexican State and the consolidation of the republic.

Juárez promoted the reform Laws and separated the church from the State, before other countries.

It is famous for the phrase "Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace."

Benito Mussolini ruled Italy between 1922 and 1945 with a single party based on totalitarianism and autocracy of fascist ideology whose rhetoric insisted on nationalism, hierarchy and the cult of personality.

He was an important ally of Hitler during World War II and of Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

Follow Verne México on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and don't miss your daily ration of Internet wonders.