Federico Reyes Heroles
Denying reality is the easiest thing in the world.
Anonymous
They began, little by little, a new chapter in history, they said. A “morning” press conference, being accountable, sounds good. The president answering questions from the press for several hours. The Goebbels formula: repeat lies ad infinitum to make them a reality in people’s minds. The core message: the explanation for all our ills lies in the past, but we are different. Simplifications as a method to win over a population that, generally speaking, doesn’t like to complicate its life with politics. Drilling an oil well is like making a little hole in the ground. Corruption is fought by sweeping from the top down. Many Mexicans bought into that narrative.
Few imagined that, within the movement, there was a small Stalinist-style group. But there they are, turning their ideas into actions. The New “Mexican School” and textbooks turned into indoctrination manuals. Notimex as a government advertising agency, no longer as the State’s information outlet. The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH)—which, by the way, now produces television series about the darkness of the past and the light of the present—is faltering following the resignation of its Council’s Board. For the past three years, the agency’s president has been running it single-handedly. Radio Educación, with its long history, is foundering. The Mexican Institute of Radio (IMER), particularly its station dedicated to orchestral music, opera, and a sound educational mission—such as *La otra versión* with Javier Platas—featuring great hosts like Terry Guerrero, Bonnie Perete, Juan Lara, Lucas Hernández, and many others, is seeing the demise of programs with tradition and substance, such as that of Javier Garciadiego, the great historian and director of the Academy of History. Perhaps their interpretation was a thorn in someone’s side. Then there were newspaper columnists—most of them members of the opposition—whose columns have been disappearing one by one. The governor of Oaxaca speaks of a “blacklist” of journalists.
But, of course, every morning from the presidential podium, there was talk of expanding freedom.
Then came the takeover of the National Electoral Institute (INE) and the Electoral Tribunal, which has allowed for such blatant irregularities as early campaigning. Yet, on the other hand, the INE’s Complaints Commission prohibits the PRI from disseminating ideas on social media on the grounds that they are allegedly defamatory. And the attacks continued, almost imperceptibly, such as the bot farms that would spring into action in unison to attack journalists and commentators. What Stalin would have given for a mechanism like that! A parallel effect of the “morning press conference” was to gradually displace coverage in the news to dominate with the story of the day coming out of the Presidential Palace. The attacks on diversity continue, and now the National Institute of Historical Studies of the Mexican Revolution (INEHRM) is being assigned educational tasks—or, as the classics would say, the training of cadres. Doctrine as a weapon. With that doctrine, to the pride of our leaders, we managed to dismantle the judiciary—the only country in the world to do so. Now we’re paying the price: investments that don’t materialize, others that flee. Yes, it’s a model championed by the “hardliners” within Morena that no one is stopping. The president’s response to Nicaragua’s Ortega’s suspension of elections was to invoke self-determination, even if it means trampling on a universal right.
International support helps a great deal. The tally of journalists killed; discrepancies in the official figures for the disappeared. The lies come to light: “Fentanyl isn’t produced in Mexico,” said the former president. Dozens of labs are discovered. The little holes to get oil didn’t work. The trains destroy what cannot be repaired and suffer accidents due to a lack of planning. But, finally, society is reacting. Article 19 is taking the Mexican case to international bodies. Mexico is now also before the International Criminal Court. SPIN estimates more than 100,000 lies and inaccuracies over six years in the “mañanera” press briefings. Animal Político puts the figure at 80 per day.
The latest development: the “Guidelines” for the media that threaten journalists, commentators, and media outlets. It couldn’t be clearer.
One blow after another.
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