Photo: Presidencia

By KELIN DILLON

In a so-called attempt to avoid “manipulation of the media,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced a new section of his daily morning press conferences on the morning of Wednesday, July 19, titled “I don’t say it,” during which the federal executive will purportedly play video clips or display statements from political adversaries as a way around the restrictions the National Electoral Institute (INE) and the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary (TEPJF) placed on López Obrador against speaking on electoral matters – and in particular, from speaking on aspiring presidential candidate for the Broad Front for Mexico Xóchitl Gálvez.

“Since I can’t talk much anymore, because those from the INE, and those from the Electoral Tribunal brush me off, I am going to have a new section in my conference that is going to be called,  or I am proposing that it be called: ‘I don’t say it’, and we just display it here, what they say, so that people have information,” said AMLO at the time.

“They are going to see that there are Mexicans who do not have access to the media or information, apart from the fact that there is censorship and the information is selective,” continued the federal executive, noting that many Mexicans don’t have regular access to the internet or television. “Only what is convenient for them is made known, there are many things that are hidden, that is why it is good that important news is transmitted here so that people are more informed.”

For the inaugural segment of “I don’t say it,” López Obrador played an interview clip from former Mexican President Vicente Fox talking about how  “it has been hard for him” to have his pension withdrawn and repeating a statement Gálvez allegedly made in disapproval of AMLO’s social programs – programs that Gálvez has publicly announced her support of.

“There it is: INE, I’ve already taken notice, I’m not going to speak on it myself,” concluded AMLO with a laugh.