Sergio Aguayo in the Superior Court of Justice of the capital, in a file image SAÚL LÓPEZ
Academician Sergio Aguayo has all his hopes on a Supreme Court resolution that puts an end to what he considers a “nightmare”, a long judicial process promoted by the former president of the PRI and former governor of Coahuila Humberto Moreira, who indicates that he is damaging his honor in a newspaper column. The highest Mexican court admitted in January 2020 to review a sentence of a civil judge who, in the second instance, condemned the journalist also to pay 10 million pesos - half a million dollars - to Moreira, after considering that there are well-founded suspicions that he exists. a violation of the right of expression in the judicial ruling. "There is a whole system tried to intimidate, inhibit and scare by those who do not want one to investigate matters of public interest",Aguayo said this Wednesday at a conference promoted by organizations that ensure respect for freedom of the press. "The Supreme Court has to take into account that there is enough documentation for the ruling to be in my favor and this nightmare ends," added the columnist.
Sergio Aguayo
The case of Sergio Aguayo heads towards the Supreme Court of Mexico
A sentence against a journalist and academic hits freedom of expression in Mexico
The hell of Aguayo - an academic with 50 years of experience - began in July 2016, when Moreira sued him for moral damages after the publication of a column in the newspaper
Reforma
, in which he denounced the passivity of the Mexican authorities in the fight against corruption in the case of the former governor of Coahuila, who had been arrested in Madrid for crimes of criminal organization, money laundering, embezzlement of public funds and bribery, although a month later he was released for lack of evidence. Aguayo wrote: “Moreira is a politician who gives off the corrupt stench; that in the best of scenarios he was ignored in the face of terrible human rights violations committed in Coahuila, and that, finally, he is a champion of the renowned Mexican impunity ”. It referred to the lack of belligerence of the local government to investigate and clarify the human rights violations by the criminal organization Los Zetas,that controlled wide sectors of the state and that imposed an unprecedented time of horror in Coahuila.
In March 2019, a judge issued a ruling in favor of the journalist, absolving him of any crime of damage to morals. However, in January of last year a sentence by a civil judge sentenced him to pay 10 million pesos to Moreira, despite criticism from numerous international organizations such as the UN, the OAS or the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which they consider unfounded the demand of the powerful Mexican political leader. The academic's defense has denounced failures and irregularities in the process, considered a blow to freedom of expression in Mexico. “The responsibility is also of the judges who play the game [with the plaintiffs]. The judiciary has a lot of work and responsibility in all this, ”Aguayo said this Wednesday.
“This is an aberrational case,” said Leopoldo Maldonado, regional director of the organization Article 19. “We have a permanent and constant abuse of judicial tools to restrict freedom of expression on matters of public interest. It is not just anything we are facing. In six years, before 2018, we documented few cases of judicial harassment of journalists, but since that year the cases have skyrocketed. In 2020, we have documented 39 cases of judicial harassment, and 16 of them in the State of Puebla against media and journalists. It is a way of intimidating, inhibiting and trying to put a veil on issues of public concern. This is evidence that there is no full freedom of expression in Mexico,therefore, the Supreme Court has the opportunity to adopt standards to repair Aguayo from the factious use of justice, ”Maldonado explained.
The Aguayo crusade has had the support of broad sectors of Mexican society, including politicians such as Senator for Morena Germán Martínez, who presented an
Amicus curiae
before the Supreme Court.
, a demand for omission of the judicial system in favor of the academic. "I have sent her so that [Aguayo] can be protected," explained the legislator, who hopes that with a ruling in favor of the columnist, the highest court of justice sets a precedent for future litigation against journalists and media that reveal cases of corruption. “The negative impact that intimidation has on freedom of expression is commented on by those who do illicit acts and need secrecy to act. Freedom of expression is exercised, taken away, permission is not requested to exercise it ”, he said. "If Moreira triumphs, the field will be fertile for authoritarian systems to take root in society," Martínez said at the conference, in which representatives of Article 19, Civic Proposal, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ),Reporters Without Borders and the Autonomous Metropolitan University.
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