The eldest son of Mexico’s president and the governing party’s presidential candidate on Saturday said that their telephone numbers were published on social media and that they have received threats and insults. Both denounced the action.
The incident came a day after Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador disclosed the phone number of a reporter for the New York Times, which published a story about a US probe into claims that Lopez took money from drug traffickers. Lopez Obrador denied the allegations.
The first to report the release of his phone number was the president’s oldest son, Jose Ramon Lopez Beltran, who wrote on X that he considered the action “a kind of vengeance” and said it puts his family in danger.
Photo: AFP
It was not immediately clear who made the number public.
Lopez Beltran said the incident began with a letter that contained “threats and lies” directed at the president and his sons. He did not elaborate.
On Saturday, Mexico’s president told reporters that it was “embarrassing for them to act that way,” referring to everyone involved.
He spoke while visiting Mazatlan, where he again criticized the New York Times report, saying that “we are not taking a single step back in the defense of liberty and justice.”
Lopez Beltran said it was the second time that his phone number has been published, adding that he also has been harassed by cameras and drones everywhere he has lived.
Lopez Beltran also blamed New York Times reporter Natalie Kitroeff for her phone number being made public, saying she provided the number “thinking that the president would respond to her slander.”
Hours later, the presidential candidate of Lopez Obrador’s Morena party, Claudia Sheinbaum, as well as the party’s secretary general, Citlalli Hernandez, announced that their numbers had also been leaked and that they were receiving offensive calls and messages.
Lopez Obrador on Friday defended his release of Kitroeff’s number despite local regulations on the protection of personal data.
“Above that law is moral authority and political authority, and I represent a country and I represent a people who deserve respect,” the president said.
National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data of Mexico Commissioner Adrian Alcala objected to those comments, telling Lopez Obrador that no one in Mexico is above the law, including the president.
“We regret that the Presidency does not warn how serious the disclosure of information by any person can be, especially by a journalist,” Alcala wrote on X.
Lopez Obrador has questioned the need for Alcala’s agency on several occasions.
This month, he presented an initiative in the Mexican Congress to eliminate it and other autonomous agencies.
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