Mexico's Sheinbaum goes 'Hugo Chavez' on dissident TV station and its owner
By Monica Showalter www.americanthinker.com
Is Mexico's la presidenta, Claudia Sheinbaum, going Hugo Chavez on us?
Well, consider what she's doing to one of her country's leading television stations, TV Azteca, whose coverage has been critical and whose owner, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, is a well-known libertarian magnate. One way or another, she's threatening to shut it down.
According to Revista Fortuna, a Mexican business publication (there's nothing about this in English about this, so here is a Google Translate of the opener):
It was only a matter of time. Claudia Sheinbaum decided to abandon restraint and lashed out at TV Azteca's reporting style since she became president. According to her, the Mexican media outlet has become critical of her administration, but with a strong incitement of hatred in society. After analyzing the situation, Sheinbaum warned that Ricardo Salinas Pliego's network could face commercial consequences if it continues with an editorial line openly critical of her administration.
"I think it's very counterproductive. Very counterproductive. They are trying to pursue a line, not only against the President in a very offensive way, by the way, and against the Government of Mexico, what we represent, the party we come from, but a line of great hatred, exacerbating hatred…" Sheinbaum began.
Along the same lines, the Mexican president stated: “They don't understand that the people of Mexico aren't like that, nor are young people, because they're supposedly trying to reach a youth sector and they're not succeeding. There will be young people who don't agree with us, and that's fine, but the majority of young people support the transformation. This information scheme will also generate more and more losses for them, to be honest. We have to see which advertisers are still with the television network, and it's simply the market…”
That has the eerie sound of Venezuela's crazed dictator, Hugo Chavez, who, once the failures of his socialist regime became clear, began to blame and shut down independent television stations such as RCTV and Globovision in the early aughts. He got away with it, and the stations became either government-controlled zombies, or else history.
Sheinbaum has a very similar problem in that her government is hopelessly corrupted by drug cartels and the public is onto it, enough to engage in violent protests such as happened in Mexico City two weeks ago. That is what Sheinbaum is referring to in the last part of her statement about young people mostly adoring her and her government 'transformation' through socialism.
Actually, they don't. They'd rather be illegal aliens in the great capitalist hell, the United States, but that option is now closed to them with President Trump's immigration crackdown. That's one reason why they demand results at home now.
And Sheinbaum is now threatening the owner of the television station that dares to cover her failures critically. The owner, Salinas Pliego, whom I used to cover at Forbes in the early aughts and talked with a few times, is a colorful, outspoken, and opinionated billionaire whose libertarian views are very sincere. He's actually a bit like Donald Trump now that I think of it, complete with a somewhat turbulent private life sort of resembling what Trump's was, at least in those years.
Fortuna notes that Sheinbaum accuses him of wanting to be a 2030 presidential candidate, as if that were a crime.
He actually sounds like what Mexico needs, given its moribund establishment and its failure to bring prosperity to its hard-working people.
Salinas Pliego, for his part, is biting back. Fortuna notes (via Google Translate):
Faced with such a statement, Ricardo Salinas Pliego didn't hesitate to respond, asserting that Sheinbaum is trying to bankrupt TV Azteca: “There are more than 190,000 families that depend on my companies, and Mexico is on the verge of becoming a failed state run by a one-party dictatorship disguised as a transformation.”
In addition, the Mexican magnate reflected: “Are we on the side of the parasites who have never worked and live like monarchs, plundering the country? Or on the side of those of us who do create jobs, who do pay taxes, who do face the music, and who do want a Mexico where crime is fought, not embraced? The government’s only clear project is to get rid of the only adversary who exposes them and keeps them up at night, the only one who isn’t afraid of them and whom they know can kick them out of power.”
Sheinbaum can't stop herself, though. Here's her modern masterplan for shutting down her potential opponent:
Grok Translate:
Marcelo Torres Cofiño accuses Claudia Sheinbaum's government of pressuring TV Azteca following warnings about potential losses of advertisers. He points out that this would be a "modern form of censorship" and a risk to freedom of expression. #TVAzteca
This dictator technique, too:
Grok Translate:
Presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum says that businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego defames every day through his social media accounts and his television station. She asks people to investigate how he acquired Tv Azteca and how he obtained ADN40 and whether he was a beneficiary of Fobaproa.
And this:
Grok Translate:
President Sheinbaum says that TV Azteca does not receive official advertising And she says, “they talk about there being censorship…how? if they talk badly about us all day long” And for “talking badly” about them, they decided to withdraw the advertising investment They don’t pay them to badmouth them Just like in the times of PRIist López Portillo
Her denials sound redolent of the Sandinistas -- and note that she's going after the critical newspaper Reforma, too:
Grok Translate:
Sheinbaum says: "Here, no one censors anyone." And while she says it, Reforma receives an extraordinary inspection and TV Azteca is surrounded as if it were a clandestine factory.
It's probably just a matter of time before she withholds newsprint from Reforma in an old dictator technique. As for TV Azteca, she's going the Democrat-style route of lawfare and deplatforming, trying to pin something trivial on Salinas Pliego in order to stop the critical coverage.
Bloomberg reports that she's going after old tax debts and colluding with creditors trying to sue him -- while trying to bankrupt him in other ways so he can't pay. She's throwing the kitchen sink at him.
It's incredible that this story hasn't been covered anywhere in the English language press, given Mexico's importance to the U.S. Trying to squelch a libertarian surge, to prevent the emergence of another Trump or another Milei is outrageous Chavista playbook behavior. When Hugo shut down RCTV around 2007, a bottom dropped out and a slew of worse things happened. One must hope that this playbook isn't Mexico's model and Salinas can fight back effectively and win.
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