(Mexico) A data protection agency in Mexico opened an investigation Thursday after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador publicly revealed the phone number of a journalist from New York Times to complain about an investigation linking those around him to narcotics.
During his usual press conference broadcast on television, Mr. Lopez Obrador read the questions sent by the newspaper to solicit his reaction, giving in passing the telephone number of this journalist.
In the process, the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) announced in a press release that it had opened an investigation aimed at determining whether the disclosure of the number constituted a “violation of the principles and duties established” in the Mexican Data Protection Law.
THE New York Times for his part denounced on X a “worrying and unacceptable tactic on the part of a world leader at a time when threats against journalists are increasing”.
It puts the team of the American daily “in danger in one of the most dangerous countries for the press”, commented on X Jan-Albert Hootsen, representative in Mexico of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The investigation of New York Times was released Thursday in English and Spanish. According to it, an investigation by American officials made it possible to discover “possible links between powerful cartel operators and officials and advisors” close to Mr. Lopez Obrador.
The article claims that someone close to the president met Ismael Zambada, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, before his electoral victory in 2018.
“The United States never opened a formal investigation against Lopez Obrador and the officials in charge of the investigation archived it,” specifies the New York Times.
The Mexican president called the accusations “slander” and urged the US administration to explain itself.
In late January, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Golden published an investigation in the online media outlet ProPublica claiming that the Sinaloa Cartel paid $2 million to the first of Mr. Lopez Obrador’s three campaigns in 2006.
The president denounced “immoral practices” and “slander”, accusing his political opponents of being behind them, a few days before the official launch of the campaign for the presidential election on June 2.
The ruling Morena party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum is the clear favorite.
On January 26, a cybersecurity expert denounced in Mexico the leak of personal information on more than 300 journalists apparently coming from a presidential database, causing concern among defenders of press freedom.
The Mexican president had promised an investigation, accusing as usual his “adversaries” of wanting to wage a “dirty war” a few months before the elections.