President Pena Nieto and the Foreign Press, the Perfect Storm in Mexico Jenaro Villamil - Proceso
go to original January 29, 2015

At the beginning of the present government, the chief of the Office of the President of the Republic, Aurelio Nuño, convened the correspondents from the principal foreign media in México. He offered them information, introductions and the presentation of the Peña government in the United States and Europe. In parallel, there was another strategy of publicity and public relations with the media, especially in Washington, through the Mexican ambassador.

The “honeymoon” lasted with many of them. It included the term Mexican Moment - coined in Los Pinos - assumed by The Economist, the prestigious British newspaper, which just last week, accused Peña Nieto of being “cynical” and gave him lessons on morality and good conduct in one of harshest editorials against the current administration.

The Wall Street Journal, the banner of information of the large financial groups, operated as one the U.S. media that most supported the energy reform of Peña Nieto. In November 2013, a “leaked” report emerged, presented as an exclusive note, that the negotiators of the opening in the Mexican petroleum sector “also are outlining a third type of license contract for the country in ultra-deep waters and for shale gas, in which a business would control the petróleum after paying royalties and taxes.”

The note, signed by the reporter Juan Montes, reported that there were negotiations between the government and “important members of the PAN”, at the margin of what was being negotiated in the Senate of the Republic, the chamber of origin for drafting the energy reform. Publishing it in The Wall Street Journal confirmed it. At this time, neither Luis Videgaray [Secretary of the Treasury] nor Aurelio Nuño, nor the principals responsible for the communication strategy of the Peña Nieto government considered the newspaper the demon it is now.

Everything changed as the result of the massacre in Tlatlaya, June 30, 2014. The United States agency AP published the testimonies of witnesses of the summary execution of 22 young people in the small and dangerous city of the State of México. From there followed the accounts of Esquire and later the disgraceful 180 degree turn in this episode in which the sunset of the Mexican Moment began.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Translated by Carolyn Smith

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx.

Graphic: Contra Corriente

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