Abstract
Mexico’s new government promised it would start rebuilding the nation’s pillars of democracy but, says
His landslide victory in July 2018 humiliated the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled for 77 of the past 90 years. But has anything changed, or has López Obrador forgotten his early promises to start rebuilding Mexico’s democracy?
The hopes of many activists and media workers were raised when the veteran leftist politician won the election. Strengthening the role of the media would be in line with a pledge to improve Mexico’s democratic values and would be seen as a signal of the new president’s commitment.
Nearly a year later, details are still emerging about the manipulative strategies the former government used to cling to power for so long. Although the PRI paid lip-service to press independence, its officials routinely resorted to bribery and intrusive surveillance measures to keep potential opponents in check. The question is: is López Obrador going to make the significant changes that are necessary to address this and other democratic practices?
While the new president has promised to halve official advertising spending during his six-year term – a move the global freedom of expression organisation Article 19 hailed as positive – he is beginning to show signs of having little time for the media’s role as a watchdog.
López Obrador often uses his daily media briefings to criticise the “fifi”, or snobby press -particularly the national outlet Reforma. In April, he demanded the newspaper reveal the source of a leaked government letter, arguing that transparency was not “just an obligation for the government but for everyone”. After an outcry, the president stopped applying pressure. But the following week, he issued an apparent threat to the press. “If you cross the line, well, you know what happens, right?” he said. “But it’s not me. It’s the people.”
The president said his comments had been misunderstood and he was not intending to create fear of reprisals. However, he stopped short of an apology.
“It is very concerning that the maximum authority in the country is undermining journalists,” said Gabriela Rasgado, a reporter from the eastern state of Veracruz. “He calls us everything except objective.”
Mexico is the deadliest country in the Western hemisphere for journalists. So far, López Obrador has offered little in terms of concrete measures designed to protect media workers.
In fact, Rasgado believes the president is fanning the flames of this crisis. She recently discovered that a state government press officer was calling her radio station and asking about her work. Shortly after, the station stopped publishing her reports relating to state politics. Rasgado filed a police complaint and told the president about the harassment after one of his daily briefings. “That doesn’t happen anymore,” was his reply. After publishing a video of the testy encounter on Twitter, Rasgado was subjected to an online smear campaign. Supporters of the president said she had taken bribes from the previous government and was angry that they had stopped – an unproven claim she categorically denies.
A victory rally for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City on 1 July 2018. The 64-year-old is the 58th president of Mexico
Cesar Rodriguez/Bloomberg/Getty
Many other journalists have been subjected to similar attacks since López Obrador’s inauguration. In February, Guadalajara’s ITESO university published a report showing a network of Twitter users and bots were taking aim at journalists for perceived slights on the president. The study showed national reporters who covered the morning conferences were most likely to be targeted.
But Rasgado said that local reporters, rather than political correspondents, would ultimately bear the brunt of this intolerance. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 95% of those killed for their work in Mexico between 1992 and 2017 reported for local outlets. As a journalist working in Veracruz, Rasgado covered the 2010-16 term of governor Javier Duarte. During that period, 17 reporters were killed in the state. Now she worries that López Obrador’s behaviour could inspire copycat aggression.
“This [hostility] sets an example that is replicated by state governors and wider society,” Rasgado told Index. “If we are going to face six years of this, I don’t want to know what will happen.”
When López Obrador took office in December, media outlets mostly welcomed the change in leadership style. While the previous president, Enrique Pena Nieto, rarely spoke off-script, the new president invited questions from journalists at daily morning conferences.
However, Genaro Lozano, a Reforma columnist, told Index the move highlighted López Obrador’s desire to dominate the media narrative.
“It’s all about him,” Lozano said. “You turn on the news and they’re talking about what the president said. Media workers and activists struggle to generate interest in other issues. It’s hard to compete with such a popular and spotlight-loving president.”
“Millions have put their trust in the new government,” said Griselda Triana, the widow of Javier Valdez, a journalist who was murdered in the coastal state of Sinaloa. “We cannot let [the president] take a step backwards.”
Triana has first-hand experience of illegal state manoeuvres. Ten days after suspected cartel gunmen killed her husband in May 2017, she began receiving suspicious text messages purporting to be from national media outlets.
The first message, claiming to be from the magazine Proceso, referenced her husband: “Prosecutors announce carjacking was the motive for Valdez murder.” The next day, she received a more cryptic message, reportedly from the website Animal Politico: “What do you think about this story? When they run out of words, they resort to attacks.”
In March 2019, the digital watchdog Citizen Lab revealed the messages contained Pegasus spyware created by the NSO Group, an Israeli cyber security firm. If Triana had opened either link she would have unknowingly installed malware on her mobile phone. The program provides access to most of a hacked phone’s functions, including the camera and the microphone.
A protester takes to the streets in downtown Mexico City in a bid to bring attention to the case of murdered journalist Javier Valdez in 2017
CREDIT: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty
Pena Nieto denied his government was behind the hacking attempt but admitted buying the spyware. However, the NSO Group said it sold the tool only to governments. The company stressed that Pegasus could not be transferred between devices or used by anyone except the purchaser.
Triana recalls avoiding the links and she later reported the incident to the police. She is waiting for the investigation to conclude, hoping the current administration uncovers the abuses of the past. “What is needed is political will,” Triana told Index. “I am interested in the truth... Where is this infrastructure? It was used by the Mexican government – it can’t have disappeared from one day to the next.”
Citizen Lab has documented 25 cases of activists, lawyers and journalists receiving Pegasus-infected messages in Mexico. The most famous target was the broadcaster Carmen Aristegui. In November 2014, Aristegui exposed corruption at the heart of government when she revealed that Angelica Rivera, the first lady, had received a mansion from a government contractor.
Aristegui received a slew of infected messages in the months following the report. She and her investigative team were also fired from MVS Radio. The national station claimed the dismissals stemmed from a separate dispute in which the company accused two of Aristegui’s colleagues, Irving Huerta and Daniel Lizarraga, of improperly associating the brand with a side project. A Mexican court later ruled the action illegal.
The scandal suggested the PRI leadership had not abandoned its old authoritarian habits. The party held power from 1929 until 2000 and silenced the press with a mixture of pressure and bribery.
“The PRI only tolerated press freedom in so much as it gave the impression that it was governing democratically,” Huerta told Index.
Eighteen months after MVS Radio fired him and his colleagues, Huerta left to study for a doctorate in London. He is unsure whether he will return to work in Mexico. In fact, Huerta says his decision largely rests on whether the new administration can tackle the state interventions and violence that strangle investigative journalism in the country.
“López Obrador represents two things to me,” he said. “The promise that the country can change and the fear that it doesn’t.”