International
Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández denounces the president’s censorship of her book on drug trafficking
Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández accused in an interview with EFE the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador of exercising a “terrible censorship that suffocates” to her new book ‘The Secret Story: AMLO and the Sinaloa Cartel’, on social networks and media, which she compared to the threats she has previously suffered for her publications.
“It’s a virtual murder when they don’t let you say things, when they don’t let you communicate, when, on the one hand, they take away any possibility of explaining the investigation,” Hernández said.
“On the other hand, the President of the Republic has the monopoly of communication, through his ‘morning’ conference, where there are already several occasions that disqualify me and disqualify my work. There are insults, there is machismo, there is misogyny,” he continued.
Mexico is the war-free country with the most journalists killed in the last decade, according to figures from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an organization that has also denounced the increase in the hostilities of the current government towards this profession, which increases the danger of exercising it.
Anabel Hernández, who has suffered these aggressions, recalled her colleague Javier Valdez, executed after publishing about Los Chapitos in Sinaloa, a “very painful” experience that the author mentions in the book.
“Althout Javier and I didn’t talk very often, when we talked and looked at each other, it was very deep because we both lived in terrible isolation,” he described.
“Because after you receive death threats, you are not thinking only of yourself, but of ‘if someone comes and shoots me, the lady next door shoots him, or the child who is in the cinema’, or what do I know,” Hernández added.
The author of ‘Los Señores del Narco’ (2010) pointed out that at the beginning of the current government, López Obrador “congratulated” her for her investigations into Genaro García Luna, former Secretary of Security of the presidency of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), now imprisoned in the United States for the revelations she published 14 years ago.
“Only now that he is the one who is being investigated, now he does denoy journalism. No, the power does not understand that journalists are not here to applaud it, we are to investigate it,” he said.
The journalist explained that “there are two key witnesses who testified against García Luna in New York,” who also pointed out López Obrador’s links with the cartel.
One, according to Anabel Hernández, is King Zambada, “who has already declared in court, in a trial that did give money to López Obrador’s campaign.”
And the other is “Sergio Villarreal Barragán, alias El Grande, who has also already declared in the PGR (extinct Attorney General’s Office) and in the trial of Genaro García Luna,” about the links of both politicians with organized crime.
In addition, Hernández defended that his sources are “direct witnesses” of the facts, which is not easy to process as a journalist, since it is necessary to question it and contrast it again and again, which becomes “very exhausting.”
The book is published in the middle of the campaigns before the elections of June 2 and, even, the opposition presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez quoted it during the last debate last Sunday.
But the journalist indicated that the work “was in process for four years” and it was not until the end of 2023 and 2024 that she found “very important” testimonies that “put the last pieces of the puzzle” with “strongness and clarity.”
“I realized that the investigation was over, seeing that there really was such solid evidence that López Obrador came to power funded by the Sinaloa cartel,” he said.
The book, based on dozens of testimonies and judicial files from the United States, narrates how the Sinaloa Cartel would have financed López Obrador’s campaigns from 2006, until the mid-term elections of 2021, when his party, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), devastated almost all States.
In the last chapter, ‘The Heiress’, Anabel Hernández proposes that that structure will probably pass into the hands of the ruling candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum.
“What I do have are many testimonies that there are members of the Sinaloa Cartel who are calling for a vote in favor of Claudia Sheinbaum. There are those who are saying that they will be better off with her than with Obrador,” he said.
International
Kristi Noem credits Trump for mass migrant deportations by mexican president
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claimed that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has deported “more than half a million” migrants due to pressure from former President Donald Trump.
During a cabinet meeting highlighting the “achievements” of Trump’s administration in its first 100 days, Noem asserted that under the Republican leader’s influence, “Mexico has finally come to the table” to negotiate on migration and fentanyl trafficking.
“The president of Mexico told me she has returned just over half a million people before they reached our border,” Noem stated, criticizing media reports that suggest the Biden administration deported more migrants than Trump’s.
“I wish those deportations were counted,” Noem added, “because those people never made it to our border—she sent them back because you made her.” She went on to thank Trump: “They never made it here because they got the message—because you were so aggressive.”
Noem has made controversial claims about Sheinbaum in the past, prompting the Mexican leader to refute them.
On April 1, Sheinbaum responded to one such statement by declaring, “The president answers to only one authority, and that is the people of Mexico,” after Noem said on Fox News that she gave Sheinbaum “a list of things Trump would like to see” and that Mexico’s actions would determine whether Trump granted tariff relief.
International
Vatican releases special “Sede Vacante” stamps ahead of papal transition
he Vatican’s post offices and select collector shops began selling special edition stamps this week to mark the period between the death of Pope Francis and the election of his successor.
Known as “Sede Vacante” stamps, they feature an image used on official Vatican documents during the interregnum between popes — two crossed keys without the papal tiara. These stamps went on sale Monday and will remain valid for postal use only until the new pontiff appears at the window overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
Until then, they can be used to send letters, postcards, and parcels. “Once the new pope is elected, the stamps lose their postal validity, but their collectible value rises,” said Francesco Santarossa, who runs a collectors’ shop across from St. Peter’s Square.
The Vatican has issued the stamps in four denominations: €1.25, €1.30, €2.45, and €3.20. Each is inscribed with “Città del Vaticano” and “Sede Vacante MMXXV” — Latin for “Vacant See 2025.”
International
Conclave to choose pope Francis’ successor could begin in early may
The conclave, which in the coming weeks must choose the successor to Pope Francis, will strictly follow a precise protocol refined over centuries.
The 135 cardinal electors, all under the age of 80, will cast their votes four times a day — except on the first day — until one candidate secures a two-thirds majority. The result will be announced to the world through the burning of the ballots with a chemical that produces the eagerly awaited white smoke, accompanied by the traditional cry of “Habemus Papam.”
The start date for the conclave could be announced today, as the cardinals are set to hold their fifth meeting since the pope’s passing. Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich suggested it could begin on May 5 or 6, following the traditional nine days of mourning. According to German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the conclave could last only “a few days.”
Although the late Argentine pontiff appointed the majority of the cardinal electors, this does not necessarily ensure the selection of a like-minded successor. Francis’ leadership style differed significantly from that of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, a German theologian who was less fond of large public gatherings. It also marked a contrast with the popular Polish pope, John Paul II.
The Argentine Jesuit’s reformist papacy drew strong criticism from more conservative sectors of the Church, who are hoping for a doctrinally focused shift. His tenure was marked by efforts to combat clerical sexual abuse, elevate the role of women and laypeople, and advocate for the poor and migrants, among other causes.
Kristi Noem credits Trump for mass migrant deportations by mexican president
Vatican releases special “Sede Vacante” stamps ahead of papal transition
Conclave to choose pope Francis’ successor could begin in early may
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