GYLP updates | Martín Rafael López: Finding Latin America's place in the digital age

Across Latin America, the digital map tells two parallel stories. Hundreds of millions enjoy instant communication on mobile internet, yet a vast population remains offline, and the digital divide is still prominent. How can technology truly benefit this land? And how can the region carve out its own place in the digital age? These are questions Martín Rafael López continues to ask.

Martín Rafael López attends the 2025 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit

López is a professor of political science and international relations at the Catholic University of La Plata in Argentina. He was selected as a World Internet Conference Global Youth Leader in 2025. His work focuses on Latin America's digital development and on using technological innovation, sustainable development, social impact initiatives and education programs to democratize knowledge and narrow social, technological and educational gaps.

A southern digital corridor

For López, the region's digital challenge is not simply about whether people have access to the internet. It is also about how the network is structured, and whether the infrastructure behind it is secure, resilient and geographically balanced.

Martín Rafael López speaks at the Youth and Digital Future Forum of the 2025 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit

More than 95 percent of international internet traffic is carried by submarine cables. Yet Argentina's international connectivity is heavily concentrated at one landing point in Las Toninas, leaving the country vulnerable to potential disruptions. 

Patagonia, meanwhile, remains underserved by the country's digital infrastructure.

Between February and April 2026, López explored these issues in articles published by two major Argentine newspapers, Clarín and La Nación. His analysis led to a proposal for a "southern digital corridor" (corredor digital austral in Spanish) that would add submarine cable landing points in the South Atlantic and build a high-capacity digital backbone across Patagonia to Ushuaia. López argues the corridor would strengthen Argentina's digital links with the South Atlantic and, potentially, the Antarctic region. 

For López, the idea is about more than a cable or a city. It is an attempt to reduce dependence on a single gateway, improve network resilience, and give Argentina, and Latin America more broadly, a stronger position on the global digital map.

Looking to China, with Latin America in mind

Infrastructure, however, is only part of the question. López is equally interested in what societies do with connectivity once it is in place. In March 2026, he published a Spanish-language article in China Today titled "Rápido desarrollo de una China digital", or "The rapid development of a digital China," tracing three decades of internet development in China.

One example that caught his attention was the widespread use of mobile payments in everyday transactions. To López, this was not simply a story about a successful application. It offered a window into how the internet can become embedded in daily life, and how digital technology can evolve from a tool into part of a society's essential infrastructure, reshaping both economic activity and everyday routines.

China's experience offers a useful reference, but López does not see it as a universal blueprint. Countries differ in their infrastructure, industrial structures, population patterns and social needs. Ideas can travel, he believes, but digital transformation must still be rooted in local realities.

For Latin America, looking to China is therefore not about searching for a model to replicate. It is about gaining perspective, using another developing country's experience to think more clearly about the region's own priorities and chart its own path toward digital development.

Martín Rafael López at Catholic University of La Plata

From Wuzhen to Buenos Aires, from the underlying logic of internet infrastructure to the idea of a southern digital corridor, López has continued to ask the same fundamental question: How can digital development become more inclusive, resilient and responsive to people's needs? In a digital age crowded with new technologies and fast-moving headlines, his approach is to look beyond the latest trend and examine the systems beneath it, while connecting local realities with a wider global conversation.

Applications for the 2026 World Internet Conference Global Youth Leadership Program have now closed. A new group of young leaders will take part in the Youth and Digital Future Forum at this year's Wuzhen Summit, bringing fresh perspectives on the digital future and a wider range of voices to the global conversation.

Stay tuned.