Mexico City, Mexico – Renowned investigative journalist Anabel Hernández on October 21 accused Mexico’s ruling MORENA political party of harassment and said any future attacks on her or her family should be attributed to the party.
Party loyalists allegedly verbally harassed the Narcoland author outside the New York City trial of former Mexican security chief Genaro García Luna on October 16.
“I am concerned and I hold them accountable. I want to say categorically that I hold the MORENA party responsible for anything that happens to me or my family in Mexico, the United States or anywhere else because of their involvement in this organization,” she told Mexican newspaper Aristegui Noticias.
Hernández has built a 28-year career uncovering Mexico’s biggest scandals involving drug cartels and elected officials. Her reporting has exposed corruption at the highest levels of government and helped show the world how deeply embedded Mexican political institutions are with organized crime.
In her latest book, “La Historia Secreta: AMLO y Cártel de Sinaloa,” (The Secret History: AMLO and the Sinaloa Cartel), Hernández claims that former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and current president Claudia Sheinbaum, as well as governors, presidents of municipalities, and officials from the MORENA party, are funded by the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the largest, most powerful criminal organizations in the world.
Outside the federal courthouse on Wednesday, MORENA loyalists heckled the reporter, shouting “traitor,” “rumor” and “sellout.”
Hernández has suffered numerous assassination attempts since the publication of her book “Los Señores del Narco” (Narcoland in English) in 2010, in which she accused several Mexican officials of collaborating with the Sinaloa cartel, including the now-convicted García Luna, of whom she accused. ordering her murder.
Her career has been marred by threats of violence and armed bodyguards assigned by the government to protect her. Despite this, the 53-year-old journalist has been iron-fisted in investigating the deep ties between cartels and Mexican politicians.
Its investigations have followed serious allegations against Mexico’s most powerful figures, such as President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (2006-2012), leader during García Luna’s time as Mexico’s security chief, and Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), predecessor of López Obrador.
While the president, López Obrador defended Hernández for her work, calling her a “professional and courageous journalist” and an “extraordinary woman”. However, when her inquiries began to focus on López Obrador and his MORENA party, rather than his political rivals, the leader began attacking her during his morning press conferences, going so far as to accuse her of a double agent for US security agencies.
Hernández has claimed that López Obrador and President Sheinbaum have been financed by the Sinaloa cartel, particularly former leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who was arrested on July 25 and is currently awaiting trial in the US.
According to her sources, she has discovered that the current ruling party is a supporter of the Sinaloa cartel and has secured a network of high-profile politicians to power its operations, including President Sheinbaum and Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, who has been charged before. related to the cartel.
As the Zambada trial unfolds, Hernández has vowed to continue reporting on what the former drug kingpin has to say about his influence over Mexico’s current political dynasty.
“What does Mayo Zambada have to say about his collaboration with the MORENA party, with Governor Rocha Moya and with many MORENA municipal presidents in Sinaloa, including AMLO, who (was) the president of the republic because the cartel financed three presidential campaigns. There is a lot to say about this and no one, even with a gun to my head, has been able to silence me, much less now,” she said.
