The 30 May 1984 is a fateful date for Mexican journalism. That day at 6: 30 Manuel Buendía, not only the most influential columnist of his time, was shot dead outside his office in Mexico City’s Zona Rosa but an upright journalist who paid with his life for having dared to denounce the corruption of the Mexican political system.
Although more than 37 years of his murder, Buendía’s legacy lives on. His column, “Red Privada”, published in more than 60 newspapers, is an obligatory point of reference to understand the insides of Mexican political reality. Buendía was feared for his diligent investigations that led him to expose government corruption and its ties to drug trafficking, the activities of far-right groups such as Los Tecos of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara and, above all, the interference of the Central Agency of Intelligence (CIA) in Mexico.
Buendía, whose columns were characterized by black humor and impeccable prose, was aware that his work had placed him in an extremely vulnerable situation. He was always armed and several times declared that if one day he was killed, “he deserved it well.” He had enemies not only among criminal groups and the Mexican government but also in Washington. It is said that the then United States ambassador to Mexico, the ex-actor John Gavin, referred to him as “Manuel Malanoche” because of the continuous journalistic blows he dealt to the CIA, including exposing the agents of that corporation who They operated in Mexico.
As the recent documentary entitled “Private Network: Who Killed Manuel Buendía?” shows, due to the multitude of enemies that the journalist had, it is not known for sure who orchestrated his death. Although the Mexican government blamed José Antonio Zorrilla, director of the defunct Federal Security Directorate (DFS) for being the current intellectual of the homicide and Rafael Moro Ávila for transporting the perpetrator, serious doubts persist regarding the true perpetrators of the murder.
Some journalists such as Raymundo Riva Palacio consider that it was a State crime in which the current director of the CFE, Manuel Bartlett and the then Secretary of Defense, Juan Arévalo Gardoqui, were involved. The motive could have been that Buendía had information about a secret agreement between the United States and Mexico to send weapons to the Nicaraguan contras, with the support of the Guadalajara Cartel, in exchange for allowing them to pass drugs to that country.
What the Buendía homicide did make clear is that in Mexico the practice of investigative and denounced journalism can be deadly. But also, as the late columnist said, that journalists are an “inexhaustible species. That is, they may kill one or the other, but there will always be someone else who will take their place and, with his pen, expose the abuses of power.
Since the murder of Buendía, they have killed more than 300 communicators and almost all cases have gone unpunished. Although in Mexico there is supposedly freedom of expression, to carry out their work journalists have to confront both organized crime and corrupt politicians and officials.
Given these antecedents, it is very worrying that, in On his mornings, President López Obrador dedicates himself to revile, often without bases, the journalists who dare to criticize him. The president should understand that he is not the holder of the absolute truth and that, given the climate of violence and polarization that exists in the country, every time he points to a communicator he exposes him to the lynching of his followers and obstructs the independent journalistic work that It is essential to guarantee the democracy of any country.