Narco
News 2001
January
12, 2001
Alvaro Cepeda Neri, nationally
syndicated columnist in Mexico known for his expertise in Press
Freedom issues, weighs in today with a call to Mexican and US
journalists to defend liberty of expression:
"As Mexican
and US journalists, we must unite our voices to expose the attack
by Roberto Hernández, who in the name of Banamex, persists
in his vengeful conduct over one fact: the truthful information
that in the beaches of his Sancho Panza island, on the coast
of Quintana Roo, there were landings and launchings by narco-traffickers."
--
Alvaro Cepeda Neri
The Banker and Freedom
of the Press
(Hernández v.
Por Esto)
by Alvaro
Cepeda Neri
I. The
columnist Carlos Ramírez, vigilant even to the weeds that
grow against the constitutional liberties of the press, has reminded
us of a matter that is in the courts with respect to a problem
that involves the newspaper "Por Esto!" and its publisher
Mario R. Menéndez, sued by Robert Hernández, the
Salinista, major stockholder and practical owner of Banamex (one
of the banks that the booty of privatization then placed in the
hands of the man who, in the past presidential term, was the
constant scuba-diving companion of President Zedillo and the
one who loaned his island on the Mexican Caribbean to Mr. Fox
and also gave him two mansions for his use after the election).
II. As
can be deduced, Mr. Hernández-Banamex has known how to
gain possession and create interests within the cupola of presidential
power as it passes from the PRI to the PAN party. A powerful
person, but not in what he thought he could do four years ago,
that is, sue the journalist and his newspaper. Because in the
pages of Por Esto! was published an investigation backed by facts
and deepened by photographs that, according to the US Supreme
Court doctrine, met the standard of truthful information (see
"The Sullivan Gertz Doctrine: A Legal Ruling in Favor of
Information" by Mariano Albur, "Francisco Zarco Publishers,"
1999).
III. The
aforementioned case is owed to the fact that the banker, beyond
having been defeated twice in Mexican courts, has rebrought the
case before US judges, and like any good ignoramus (he doesn't
know that the precedent of "Sullivan-Gertz" exists),
he supposes that with his money and his lawyers he will be able
to obtain a favorable judgement and punishment against the Mexican
journalist and another from the United States, Al Giordano, who
are not exactly in the eye of the hurricane, but in the tarnished
peephole of the Salinista, Zedillista and now Foxista banker.
IV. The
investigative journalism (with photographs and the assistance
of eye witnesses) reported in 1996 that the beaches in the jurisdiction
of the island property of the banker (Sancho Panza has the blame
for walking around asking for islands), were used to load and
unload packets of cocaine. The information, obviously, disgusted
Mr. Hernández, but not to the degree that he filed a complaint
before the Attorney General so that they could investigate who
used his property and who benefited from this drug trafficking.
Believing himself to be owner of the world with his money and
influence in the Mexican presidential mansion, Los Pinos, what
he did instead was to accuse the newspaper edited and circulated
in Yucatán as well as its publisher, arguing defamation
over a report that continues being true.
V. The
aforementioned banker has sued the US journalist because Al Giordano,
who leads modern journalistic services on the Internet, was informing
and criticizing that the reports of Sam Dillon of The New York
Times, obviously in bad faith, ignored the information that already
had been published about drug trafficking in the private beaches
of the banker's island. This, when Clinton visited the capital
of the Yucatán peninsula. "Accused by Giordano, Dillon
declared that he did not consider the information to be important."
(Carlos Ramírez, El Universal,
January 8, 2001).
VI.
National journalism has knocking on its door a question that
it must address, since this already is about, one more time,
the traditional attack against the freedom of information in
the context of Freedom of the Press. But, beyond that, this is
the first case of this kind in the administration of Fox and
the PAN. The owner of Banamex, by accusing the US journalist
and kicking anew at the Mexican journalist (and his newspaper
Por Esto!), has made this not about exercising his rights - since
already he was denied twice by Mexican courts - but rather to
execute revenge against those who exercise these liberties against
power.
VII.
"The matter of the lawsuit by Banamex against the journalists
Menéndez and Giordano has begun to draw interest in the
US. Journalist Cynthia Cotts broke the story in late December
in her "Press Clips" column of the prestigious progressive
newspaper The Village Voice of New York with the title, "Drug
War Goes to Trial." For the columnist, the matter will reveal
a lot: It will open a debate on how the media manages information
about drug trafficking." (This paragraph is from the column
of Carlos Ramírez.)
VIII. But,
at the same time, in the Mexican press the issue must open the
discussion about liberty of the press, above all when a group
encrusted in the Iberoamericana University and its connection
with the PAN wants to sharpen the blade of constitutional rights.
Before maximizing these liberties they are trying to reduce them,
alleging that the media has surpassed its limits. The case of
Banamex-Hernández versus the newspaper Por Esto! and Mario
R. Menéndez; and the Internet newspaper www.narconews.com
and Al Giordano, is a question that touches the very heart of
constitutional liberties in the United States and in Mexico.
IX.
Backed "dilligently, by the facts," with photographs,
the investigative report published by the Mexican newspaper is
a characteristic work of truthful information. And the critique
that appeared in the US publication also obeys the plain exercise
of rights that the public has to receive information in another
media when it has been hidden intentionally. This is about, above
all, drug trafficking and not a story, for example, about sports
to be left to publicists.
X. The
banker and his network of Salinista-Zedillista-Foxista interests,
in place of clearing up the matter, has spun its web around two
journalists and two newspapers. But this is about, once and for
all, censorship of the freedom of expression of Mario R. Menéndez
and Al Giordano, because in New York, less than a year ago, they
spoke again about the matter. And the banker, believing himself
owner of Banamex and of the United States courts, insists on
winning a judgment that he has already lost in advance, if he
had only known about the Sullivan-Gertz doctrine. Meanwhile,
as Mexican and US journalists, we must unite our voices to expose
the attack by Roberto Hernández, who in the name of Banamex,
persists in his vengeful conduct over one fact: the truthful
information that in the beaches of his Sancho Panza island, on
the coast of Quintana Roo, there were landings and launchings
of narco-traffickers.
Articulos cerca de nuestro caso están
disponibles en Español cortesía de Periodistas
Frente de la Corrupción
The Drug War Goes On
Trial
Authentic Journalism
Rises Again