Mexico’s president drew harsh criticism from various international press freedom organizations after he singled out a journalist for revealing his son’s alleged income and other personal information. The confrontational statements between politician and journalists in Mexico follows the deaths of five journalists killed since the start of the year.
In recent days, Mexican Journalist Carlos Loret De Mola published an expose claiming that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s (AMLO) son, Jose Ramon Beltran, is living a life of luxury in Houston benefiting from companies that had dealings with Mexico’s oil company Pemex (Petroleos Mexicanos). Loret de Mola pointed to two houses in Houston, as well as Jose Ramon’s alleged lavish lifestyle even though he has no real source of income.
This week, Lopez Obrador lashed out at Loret De Mola by revealing a series of PowerPoint slides with the journalist’s financial information claiming that the journalist made over $1.5 million USD for writing hit pieces against his government. AMLO repeatedly claimed that since he took office in 2018, corruption and impunity have ended in Mexico and that critical news stories are pushed by corrupt news outlets serving his rivals.
Yesterday, Mexican president @lopezobrador_ used his daily morning press briefing to ‘reveal’ the personal finances of journalist @CarlosLoret.
This represents a clear abuse of authority by the president and serves to intimidate journalists critical of his government. https://t.co/LJKl01Aeji
— Jan-Albert Hootsen (@jahootsen) February 12, 2022
Loret De Mola published a short video soon after being singled out by AMLO claiming that the information was false and that releasing financial information about an individual is a crime. In one example, AMLO claimed that Loret De Mola earned millions of Pesos for working in Televisa. However, the journalist claimed that he left his job as an anchor in that channel in 2019. Loret De Mola then said he would redouble his efforts in exposing a “dictator” in the making.
Mi respuesta a las amenazas y mentiras del presidente. Y todo… por las casonas de su hijo Houston. pic.twitter.com/vlrqyLjGxV
— Carlos Loret de Mola (@CarlosLoret) February 11, 2022
In prior days, AMLO lashed out against other journalists who he praised under prior administrations such as Carmen Aristegui. International press freedom organizations have called out the Mexican president for targeting news outlets while little has been done by the government in stopping the impunity with which journalists have been killed in Mexico As Breitbart Texas has reported, since the start of the year, there have been five journalists killed, sparking mass outrage from journalists throughout. Activists claim that under AMLO’s administration, there have been more journalists killed than in prior administrations.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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