Many were surprised by the declarations released by the host of the TV Azteca nightly newscast, Javier Alatorre, last Friday. Where without mediating any impartiality or presenting a note at the discretion of the audience, he called to ignore whatever the Undersecretary of Health and the person in charge of the strategy against coronavirus, Hugo López Gatell, says.
He literally said, “we tell you in all its words, to no longer pay attention to Hugo López Gatell”. In addition, he supported his statements by using the words of one of the people closest to the President, the Governor of Baja California, Jaime Bonilla; as well as the interview López Gatell had with Richard Ensor, in which he recognized that his figures were underreported, since no one could have the actual numbers, but only estimations through mathematical models. Javier Alatorre directly attacked whom President López Obrador designated as the maximum authority figure on this crisis in Mexico.
This fact is even more striking when we consider that the unwritten codes of this media would had never allowed him to do this by himself, which means that he had the complete authorization, or at least the knowledge of Ricardo Salinas Pliego, who in recent days drew attention for his position of prioritizing the economic interest above health, with the argument, still to be verified and without ruling out, that deaths will be greater in a situation of economic catastrophe. And at that time, as in many others, he called to support the country and the President.
In the end, everything was left in a warning (a call for attention) from the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB) in which they ask the media to respect the work of the health authorities, and that, in case of non-compliance, the Ministry will initiate the administrative sanctioning procedure established by Law.
Consequently, the collective’s reaction did not take too long and even more, when the President took the opportunity to address the situation during his Saturday message to the people of Mexico, he pointed out the fact and even highlighted, “Javier, my friend, was wrong”. That is why the collective imaginary is trying to understand what happened, since it’s not a small thing that the owner of one of the most important communication platforms in the country and second in Forbes’s national list would be so exposed in topics of national interest.
There are many theories that go from assuming that López Gatell is the sacrifice lamb of this crisis, meaning, it will be he who assumes all the blame in face of a possible failure; to the idea of a possible success, which in this tragedy seems remote, since no one in their right mind would think that there could be victory when there is a deceased person. In any case, in the best scenario, we have the bases of a diagnosis, which will allow us to learn from the situation and never be caught out of guard again.
* Arturo Ávila Anaya, presidente IBN/B Analitycs y experto en Seguridad Nacional por Harvard (NIS).
@ArturoAvila_mx
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