Disclosure of Journalist's Number / Electricity Subsidies

AMLO Defends Disclosure of Journalist's Number. The federal president asserted that sharing journalist Natalie Kitroeff's phone number "was not a mistake," as the daily briefing is a public space. 

This Friday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador responded to the numerous criticisms against him, after he revealed the phone number of Natalie Kitroeff, a journalist from The New York Times, who published a new investigation against him for alleged ties to drug trafficking. 

When questioned about why he disclosed the personal data of Kitroeff, the president accused those media of being close to conservatism and of "being fixated on the speck in others' eyes and not the beam in their own.” 

"The NYT journalist slandered me and my family with drug trafficking, without evidence. It was not a mistake to disclose her personal number because we are in a public space. There is no risk for journalists and I would do it again," he said. "No matter what the Personal Data Law says, freedom is above that. The president of Mexico cannot be slandered. Whoever slanders will be responded to with everything, whoever they may be," he affirmed.

AMLO Signs Electricity Subsidies. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that he has already signed a decree authorizing permanent subsidies for electricity rates in Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, and Nayarit.

The president said that this measure will eliminate the need to renew this benefit for consumers every year. The subsidy comes into effect on Feb. 23. Rates are in effect in some states only during the high-temperature season, while in others, they will remain in place throughout the year.