Mexico President’s Son Says Number Published in Vengeance

Amy Stillman
·1 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s son decried the publication of his phone number on social media as an act of “vengeance” after the president publicly released a reporter’s contact information.

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José Ramón López Beltrán, the son of the Mexican president known as AMLO, said his own phone number was leaked and that he has received threats, according to a post Saturday on X.

It came after AMLO disclosed the phone number of a reporter for the New York Times, which published an article on a preliminary US probe into alleged ties between the president’s allies and narco gangs.

Ruling Morena party presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum said on X Saturday evening that her phone number had also been leaked and she had received non-stop calls and hate messages. She posted one of the messages, describing it as “crude” and “harmless,” and said she would change her phone number.

AMLO has defended his decision to share the reporter’s phone number because he said the article was slanderous and the request for comment on deadline was an “ultimatum.”

Read more: AMLO Says He Doesn’t Regret Sharing NYT Reporter’s Number

The move has drawn criticism from media rights advocates who say it was irresponsible. Mexico is considered one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Transparency watchdog INAI said in a statement it would investigate the president’s decision to share the reporter’s number as a possible violation of a law that protects data in the hands of government officials.

(Updates with comments from presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum in fourth paragraph.)

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