The massive leak of information from the Mexican Army has revealed a follow-up carried out by the Armed Forces on numerous actors on the national political scene.
Files of senators, deputies and governors appear among the more than four million emails to which EL PAÍS had access.
In some cases, they report from the type of blood they have to relevant data such as whether they have links to organized crime.
The current president of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), Mario Delgado, was profiled in 2020 when he held a seat in Congress, or the Secretary of Government of Mexico City, Marti Batres, was investigated last year when he was a federal senator.
The Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) manages records of governors, mayors, local legislators, state attorneys general,
Politics occupies much of the six terabytes of Army information that were leaked.
For years, Sedena developed documents, under the name of Campos de Poder, in which it analyzed the main political actors in each state.
Among the data they studied was how much social weight and how much convening power they had.
But the investigation did not stop there.
The Armed Forces collected information on hundreds of politicians, many of them elected by the population to hold office.
The documents do not specify what Sedena wanted this information for or what it would do with it later, but some monitoring is thorough and dates back to at least 2017. The monitoring they have done not only to politicians, but also to activists, journalists and social defenders opens the debate on the limits of the Army in a democracy.
The revelations also come in a specific political context: the Senate must discuss this Tuesday the extension of the presence of the Armed Forces in the streets until 2028. If approved, the Army will have free rein to continue doing internal public security work.
Among the names that stand out is that of former deputy Mario Delgado, about whom they detail his militancy in the PRD before joining Morena.
The current president of the ruling party includes his personal data, all the political positions he held and lists a series of awards he received.
Under the title of confidential, they add details about the roles that the politician had within the Lower House between 2018 and 2020.
File of the Sedena with personal data of the federal deputy Mario Delgado.
Another member of the ruling party that appears in the confidential reports is Marti Batres, current right-hand man of the head of the Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbuam.
Along with him appear several members of the capital Cabinet who were investigated.
De Batres, who was signed by Sedena when he was a senator, describe personal information and comment on at least five books he wrote.
The profile of the former senator ends with a section that inquires about the possibility that he maintains a relationship with organized crime: "To date there is no knowledge."
File of the Sedena with personal data of senator Martí Batres.
Mónica Almeida López, deputy for Jalisco from the PAN, PRD and Movimiento Ciudadano alliance between 2018 and 2021, was also booked in May 2019. In her case, the report has personal data, academic training and detailed information on her political career.
The document also indicates that there is no evidence that she maintains ties to organized crime.
"So far, no journalistic notes have been detected that defame or discredit the reputation of said official," she concludes.
Former deputy Cándido Ochoa, PRI representative for San Luis Potosí, also appears among those monitored.
In addition to containing the same as the previous ones, his file includes information about negative comments that he has received.
"He has been criticized by inhabitants of the Huasteca Potosina, that his performance in public office has been bad, since on many occasions he did not respond to requests, so he has a low number of supporters," he says. .
The governor of San Luis Potosí, Ricardo Gallardo Cardona, has one of the most detailed profiles.
With 15 pages, the file details things such as the fact that the Green Party politician has zero positive blood or the accusations that led him to jail in January 2015 for crimes of operations with resources of illicit origin and links with organized crime.
The document includes an analysis of the management that he did in each position that he held or the handling that he had of the covid pandemic.
Sedena also monitored the members of Gallardo Cardona's Cabinet, currently a political ally of Morena.
The report also develops the public comments that he has made on different issues, almost always related to the actions of the Armed Forces, and the campaign promises that he made.
File of the Sedena with personal data of the governor of the State of San Luis Potosí, José Ricardo Gallardo.
Another governor signed by Sedena was former soccer player Cuauhtémoc Blanco, the head of the Government of the State of Morelos, who was elected under an alliance between Morena, the Labor Party and the conservative Social Encounter Party.
About him, the Army points out that he did not finish high school, and specifies important moments in his sports career.
In addition to his record, there is that of all the politicians who were candidates for the Morelos Executive in 2018.
The statements of politicians in general were of great interest to the Army.
Several emails record how the Armed Forces monitor what is being said about them.
In June 2019, for example, they requested a detailed report on all the pronouncements against Sedena on the
Ayotzinapa case
made by senior officials of this Government, such as Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard;
the Undersecretary for Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas;
Undersecretary of Foreign Relations Martha Delgado;
the then Secretary of the Treasury Carlos Urzúa;
who occupied the Undersecretary of Finance and later became the head of that dependency, Arturo Herrera;
among many others.
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