Mexican president attacks journalists amid "Houstongate" corruption scandal

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – a self-proclaimed anticorruption crusader and champion of the working class– has come under fire over his eldest son’s use of a luxury home in Houston after it was revealed that the property was owned by a contractor linked to Mexico’s state-run oil company.

Although the president has claimed that the arrangement did not constitute any wrongdoing, the matter has quickly become known across the media as “Houstongate” -- prompting AMLO to fire back at reporters, calling them “mercenaries” and comparing them to the mafia, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The president further escalated tensions by revealing details surrounding the income of award-winning investigative journalist Carlos Loret before asking Mexican tax authorities to investigate his finances – a move which Mexico’s Bar Association has said violated tax-secrecy laws.

“From the day we published our investigation, the president began with threats and attacks. He then escalated with a presentation full of typos that sought to expose my supposed million-dollar income that is just false,” said Loret. “In a country like Mexico that makes you an attractive target for kidnappers.”

But the new revelations, coupled with the president’s obtuse response, has blown up and could ultimately define AMLO’s already polemic presidency.

More than 60,000 users took to Twitter this week to show support for Loret, popularizing the hashtag #WeAreAllLoret.

“For the first time in his government, the president has lost control of the public conversation,” said Jesús Silva-Herzog, a political analyst.

AMLO has not budged, however, and has since gone as far as urging journalists who have covered the matter to disclose their income, claiming they could be acting in the interest of forces trying to damage his administration.  

The president’s stance against the press has drawn wide criticism in the Aztec country where press freedom has fallen dramatically in recent years and journalists face the most dangerous conditions in the Western Hemisphere. So far in 2022, five journalists have been murdered.

The 2021 Chapultepec Index, which measures freedom of press in 22 North and South American countries, found that Mexican journalists face partial restrictions to freedom of press. The report also found that Mexico dropped five places in the ranking since the report was first published in 2019.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz joined the chorus of criticism against AMLO, criticizing his use of rhetoric against journalists.

 “In 2020, more journalists were killed in Mexico than any country in the world,” he said. “President López Obrador seems intent on making all these trends worse.”

Mexico’s Ambassador to the U.S. Esteban Moctezuma wrote a letter to Cruz, defending Mexico’s record on press freedom and pointing to recent arrests in cases of murdered journalists.