• Dispute comes as nation’s press is increasingly under threat
• Journalist Loret De Mola says president angry about coverage

By Maya Averbuch/Bloomberg

MEXICO CITY
EnergiesNet.com 02 15 2022

By Maya Averbuch

Mexico’s president redoubled his attacks against a growing list of journalists, defending his decision to reveal the income of one reporter who exposed his son’s luxury lifestyle in Houston.

On Monday, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called media outlets critical of his administration “leaders of a coup, mercenaries, sell-outs.” He said journalists should reveal how much they earn even if they work in the private sector.

The president has been lashing out frequently at the press in the wake of a scandal over his son’s nearly million-dollar home rental, which cast doubt about the first family’s austerity. Lopez Obrador caused an uproar on social media after revealing on Friday what he alleged to be the annual income of Carlos Loret de Mola, a founding member of Latinus, which broke the story about his son.

Read More: AMLO Says Son Doesn’t Influence His Govt After Story on His Home  

“How could I not publish this information?” said AMLO, as the president is known, on Monday. “That man is dedicated not only to attacking the government, not only the president, but also the transformation project of millions of Mexicans to end the biggest problem in Mexico, corruption.”

Loret responded to the president’s comments on Friday saying the income data cited by AMLO was incorrect, but displaying it was illegal and put his family at risk. Some media outlets criticized the president outright and over 60,000 people joined a Twitter Spaces event to repudiate AMLO’s decision.

Journalist Murders

Mexico has for years been one of the most dangerous countries in the world for members of the press, but the pace of the murders this year — five so far — has led to protests and a call to revamp the state’s protection mechanism for journalists who have been threatened. Local journalists who cover crime and corruption in violent areas have been at far more risk in recent years.

“We are worried about the situation that journalists live in in Mexico,” wrote the U.S. Embassy in Mexico on Twitter on Saturday, after the murder of the fifth. “A full investigation that finds those responsible is necessary.” 

Read More: Mexico’s AMLO Defends Son Working with Family of Govt Consultant

AMLO, who campaigned on a platform of rooting out corruption, said his son Jose Ramon Lopez Beltran’s employer, KEI Partners, is run in part by the children of a consultant on one of the government’s infrastructure projects, but that company earns no funds from the government.

KEI, a luxury property developer in Houston, according to its website, employs the president’s son as a legal consultant, Lopez Beltran said in a Twitter message posted on Sunday, in which he defended himself against the insinuation his home rental showed he benefited from government contractors.

bloomberg.com 02 14 2022