A lesson on Ethics from Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Excelsior and La Razon about the Lopez Obrador travel to Italy

On April 22, 2014 several respectable online websites: Excelsior, La Razon posted a picture of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador allegedly in Italy. Columnists wonder how much did the travel cost, where did the money come from, and why he didn't use that money to help the poor

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) is the most important leftist leader in Mexico, 2 times presidential candidate and appointed candidate for next elections on 2018. Over last 14 years he had been slandered in Mexican media, treated with contemptuous rudeness by journalist like no one else.

The source of this picture is an otherwise unknown twitter user named: Jesus Soberon. He tweeted her niece "found" AMLO in Italy on April 18, 2014. He doesn't specify if her niece is on the picture. He doesn't say where exactly this picture was taken. This user Jesus Soberon is not available for questioning because his account is private. This single unconfirmed twitter report made the headlines.

The “news” of the travel of Lopez Obrador was broadcasted by TV too. Media says it's not on them to ask further questions but just spread the word. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel laureate writer and journalist wrote on a short essay called “Journalist: The best Job of the World”

“... investigation is not just an specialty of the job but all journalism must be investigative by definition, the consciousness that ethics is not an occasional condition, but must always accompany journalism like buzz to hornets..”

More than a week later neither La Razón nor Excelsior have made a breakthrough on the story, they could have asked for an official statement from Lopez Obrador, the Mexican Government and airline companies, but apparently they chose not. They stay just with the tweet, yet they make assumptions on where the money came from, as if the trip were a solid fact.

On May 18, 2010 Excelsior published on his editorial “Frentes Politicos” AMLO confused 19th century President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna with contemporary guitar player Carlos Santana. The next day Excelsior published an apology because after listening a recording was clear such mistake didn't happen. Excelsior put the blame on an unnamed news agency that didn't make an accurate transcript of AMLO speech.

Again the words of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who passed away a few weeks ago:

“... this ethics abuses obey to a dauntless notion of the job, taken consciously and founded with pride on the enshrinement of the first news at any cost and over all. They are not moved by the foundation that the best news is not always the first published but many times that given better...”

 

Update. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador confirmed on July 8^th 2014 a trip to Italy, funded with the earnings of his last book. It was not the Mexican media, but AMLO himself who made the announcement in his Facebook account.

The blind eye of the celebrities: the case of Mexico

During last months we've seen several Mexican celebrities showing endorsement for “Venezuela” and the “people” of Venezuela. But where were this well-meaning TV Stars when police and the military killed students in Mexico?

Top talk show presenter Laura Bozzo took some time on February 17 to condemn “communist” like Maduro, live on TELEVISA. Her show is one of the most watched in Mexico and TELEVISA the biggest Spanish-spoken company of the world. Top folk singer Marco Antonio Solis “El Buki” said on February 20, he supported “Venezuela”. When celebrities say “the people” of Venezuela “is not alone”, the media take it like support for anti-Maduro protesters, as if no common citizens were supporting President Maduro. The web page of “El UNIVERSAL” -the most visited news site in Mexico- linked “El Buki” claims to the violence against “students peaceful protest”even when we know from the very beginning those protest were not peaceful. Top Mexican soccer player “Chicharito” Hernandez tweeted his support for “freedom” in Venezuela on February 24. He's not just the most famous soccer player but the most famous athlete of Mexico today -now playing for Manchester United- and till that moment he had never demonstrated support for any political cause. During a game in Honduras in 2013, alpinist Leonardo Fernandez carrying a sign of the left wing Mexican movement “MORENA” tried to greet “Chicharito” and he refused it.

Neither “Chicharito” Hernandez, nor “El Buki” said anything when 2 students of the Ayotzinapa Teachers School were killed by the Mexican police in 2009 when they were asking for scholarships. No one said anything when Juan Francisco Kuykendall was shot in the head while protesting during the sworn-in of President Enrique Peña Nieto in 2012. Kuykendall died on January this year after almost 2 years of agony as result of his wounds, all Mexican celebrities and TELEVISA remained silent, as if nothing happened.

Former Mexican president Felipe Calderon of the right wing party PAN was ready to condemn criminalization of protest in Venezuela, on February 14, even when he did not hesitate to use the Federal Police to arrest Oaxaca State social Leaders and to continue repression against APPO movement on 2007. Even more, on 2010 two young Mexican postgraduate students of the ITESM (Monterrey Institute of Technology) were killed by the Mexican army who took them for drug cartel hitmen. Mr Calderon government went by without solving these murders despite complains of Human Rights Watch. No Mexican celebrity has ever asked for the truth and justice for these victims.

Top TV-historian Enrique Krauze criticized Dilma Rousseff on February 25 for supporting “repressive regimen”. He has never called “repressive regime” to Peña Nieto government for the use of tear gas and a water cannon against Mexican teachers that were meeting at the Zocalo of Mexico City on 2013 demanding an agreed Educative Reform instead of an imposed one.

This is why recent burst of support to Venezuela from Mexican celebrities seems artificial. It makes no sense in the context of the recent history. Maybe some kind of never seen humanitarian enlightenment has come over our TV Stars at the same time or this amazing synchronous concert is driven from a more worldly pressure.

I'll go with second, just Occam's razor

Why Mexicans don't support Enrique Peña Nieto's Energy Reform?

1. Lack of trust on the private sector. According to a poll published by the newspaper El Universal, about 62% of the people is something/very against private investment in the national Mexican oil company (PEMEX). If we look at the recent past this is no surprise: in 1990 President Carlos Salinas amended Mexican Constitution to allow private investment in the banking system, and created a fund in case of contingency – the infamous FOBAPROA. In 1994 most of the banks had severe financial problems. Government needed 100 billion dollars plus interest to bailout its recently privatized banks and the FOBAPROA was not enough. During 1998, the private debt of the banks was converted to public debt. Today Mexicans are still paying.
   This is not an isolated case: Government had to bailout private Highways companies just 8 years after their privatization. Another case: Mexico spent 110 million dollars to expropriate sugar mills in 2001 because private owned companies were in bankruptcy.
   Even private investment in PEMEX has not done so well. Private companies extract oil under the multiple service contracts modality at the Chicontepec basin and the results is a steady decrease in oil production meanwhile oil production is increased at Tabasco's coastal region with PEMEX working alone.
2. Privatization will trigger tax raises. Mexican Oil Company handles 70% of its income to the Federal Government. This money is used to build infrastructure, to pay the wages of the bureaucracy and to pay the welfare. President Peña's proposal is to create profit-sharing contracts with foreign private oil companies. Any share has to come from the oil rent so it'll be less money to the government who is going have to find another source of income. José Angel Gurria Secretary-General of the OECD said Mexico must increase the VAT - shortly after meeting President Peña. Now Peña said he will send a Fiscal Reform to the Congress on early September.
3. PEMEX can do well without private investment. Two core ideas of the state campaign on Mexican media to promote the Energy Reform are: PEMEX has neither the money nor the technology to keep working, so needs private investment. The Senator and Economist Alejandro Encinas has challenged both ideas. First PEMEX is the fouth oil producer of the world and the thirteenth of the Americas in order of income. The problem is PEMEX has to pay 70% of this income to the government. PEMEX's fiscal burden can be relieved by eliminating tax exemptions and loopholes to biggest private companies. This loopholes are tantamount to 3.87% of the country GDP more than the 1% of GDP the Energy Reform allegedly will boost. PEMEX will have the money if some fiscal arrangements are made without changing the Constitution.
   Secondly it's said Mexico has no the technology to drill on deep-water. Mexicans engineers built the oil industry from scratch after its nationalization in 1938; an ensuing international boycott thwarted the new state-owned company to acquire technology from abroad, but today here is PEMEX 4^th oil producer of the world. The most recent achieving is drilling successfully the Supremus-1 oil well over 9000 feet on deep-water on 2012.
4. Reduced electricity bills seem unfeasible. President Peña is promising to lower electricity bills. Both right-leaning ruling parties -PRI and PAN- have tried to match the domestic gas prices to US prices by eliminating subsidies. It's logical to think they'll do the same about electricity bills. Currently the price of a kilowatt hour in Mexico varies from 2.1 to 2.9 MXN ( average 19 American cents). Meanwhile in the US prices go from 6.8 to 32.9 cents per kWh (average 19.85 American cents). There's not much room for improving the rates.
5. The Energy Reform is not environmentally friendly. Greenpeace stated this Energy Reform is not green, because it relies on fracking as a method to reach the shale gas. Also implies a risk of a new Gulf of Mexico oil spill accident while searching on deep-water. Television advertisements urge to do not leave the oil underground, but because oil is a non-renewable resource it makes more sense if it's carefully administered.
6. Increasing dependency on the US and loss of sovereignty. To Mexicans Globalization means to buy almost everything from abroad and export nothing but our brothers and sisters. Jobs must be created in Mexico to hold Mexicans from crossing to the US risking their lives and leaving a worried family behind. As show in a study of Tufts University the NAFTA affected negatively small Mexican farmers who cannot compete with the US subsidized corn, soy and wheat. Most stores bought cheap imported grains and seeds rather than expensive domestic production. So after NAFTA was signed a great wave of unemployed farmers rushed into the US looking for work. What will happen if the US can't sell us food and gasoline anymore?
   Back to oil: Mexico is importing more than 50% of the gasoline in spite of being the 4^th world oil producer. There's one refinery every 2,213 persons in the US and one refinery every 19,568 persons in México. The problem of sky rocketing prices of gasoline can be tackled by building more refineries thus generating jobs inside Mexico.
7. The lies about Lazaro Cárdenas. Lazaro Cárdenas was the Mexican president who expropriated private oil companies in 1938 because of their failure to abide by the law. Now President Enrique Peña Nieto is airing a heavy campaign on the 2 main TV networks presenting Cárdenas as favorable to foreign investment. Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas, son of Lazaro Cárdenas, regarded as “ofensive” the misuse the figure of Lazaro Cárdenas for something he did not stand for. Mexican Historians Pedro Salmerón, Luis Fernando Granados and Halina Gutierrez have also condemned the government lies.
   Cuauhtemoc Cardenas made a proposal to involve all society on the discussion of this Energy Reform and a popular consultation. To this day Government officials deny the possibility of direct democracy even though the fraction VIII of Article 35 of the Mexican Constitution allows referendums about national importance topics