By FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ*
Article is written with insinuations, tricks, deliberate omissions, blatant distortions, misrepresentations and lies, and is primarily intended to tarnish AMLO's reputation
Using Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum's decision to include Omar García Harfuch in her cabinet, NACLA [North American Congress on Latin America] contributor Suhail Gharaibeh wrote a article of reputation assassination against García Harfuch (June 29, 2024), just three weeks after Claudia Sheinbaum's victory on June 2. A substantial part of the “reputation assassination” includes a torrent of innuendo, guilt by association, and many other complicated ambiguities intended to supposedly “demonstrate” the long-term connection, if not association, between AMLO and drug traffickers since at least 2006.
This is the true aim of Suhail Gharaibeh’s article and the “assassination of García Harfuch’s reputation” is the means to it. This narrative completely echoes Mexico's right-wing opposition and the global corporate media, which attempted to attach the “narco-president” label to AMLO and Claudia Sheinbaum. It was surprising and disappointing to read this in a “progressive” newspaper.
The destructive attack on García Harfuch
Through subterfuge, Suhail Gharaibeh seeks (unsuccessfully) to demonstrate, among other things, that García Harfuch “participated” in the forced disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa in 2014; he was under the command of corrupt police officers (Genaro García Luna, Ramón Pequeño, Luis Cardenas Palomino and others, who participated in operations against drug trafficking by the Sinaloa cartel, all of them fugitives, awaiting trial or in prison); was appointed coordinator of the Federal Police of the state of Guerrero in 2013, at a time when, according to the DEA, large quantities of cocaine, heroin and money were being smuggled into the USA (when the president of Mexico was Enrique Peña Nieto, any conclusions about this , Mr. Gharaibeh ); that the Federal Police command in Guerrero was instrumental in the kidnapping and disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa.
And then, just in case, Gharaibeh quotes Anabel Hernández — a “journalist”[I] intensely hostile to the Fourth Transformation, to López Obrador, and to Claudia Sheinbaum—over alleged, but unproven, corrupt connections between AMLO and the Sinaloa cartel. It also cites Hernández's allegation that, between 2014 and 2016 — the period in which García Harfuch replaced Tomás Zerón de Lucio for trying to criminally cover up the Ayotzinapa massacre — García Harfuch “received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the [Sinaloa] cartel. ]”, as was “confirmed” by anonymous DEA agents.[ii]
Violating the most basic principles of journalism,[iii] Gharaibeh, without any irrefutable evidence or proof of any kind, nonchalantly claims that “a decade ago, [García Harfuch] participated in the most infamous state crime in recent history (Ayotzinapa).” However, in the headline for his own article about NACLA, it is stated that García Harfuch “allegedly participated in the forced disappearance” of the 43 students. The distance between the two statements is great, which, without any serious and verifiable proof, makes the second statement malicious, but the first, defamatory.
Afterwards, Gharaibeh tries guilt by association. Under the subtitle “García Harfuch and the new dirty war”, he mentions that García Harfuch's father and grandfather had been senior security officials between 1977-1978 and 1988-1991 and in October 1968 (in the latter, during the massacre from Tlatelolco), respectively. In 1968, García Harfuch was not yet born (he was born in 1982) and in 1991 he was nine years old. Gharaibeh's intention is clear.
Gharaibeh then goes on to highlight the cover-up of the Ayotzinapa massacre — the historical truth — and cites three reports from the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) of the IACHR that involved the Federal Police, which appears abundantly in the reports, but Omar García Harfuch It’s never mentioned in any of them.[iv]. GIEI's work began in March 2015 (is GIEI also part of the cover-up plot?).
His last report was released in February 2022, that is, six years after García Harfuch replaced Zerón de Lucio (who was accused but is hiding in Israel), however, Gharaibeh, in his typical style, claims that the vast operation of cover-up “was invented precisely to protect officials like García Harfuch.” Worse still, although he links (in Spanish) to the Truth Commission for Ayotzinapa, he fails to inform the reader that this Commission demonstrated the cover-up, and he also fails to inform (in English) that it was created by decree by the President López Obrador in December 2018[v], and whose findings have led to a series of arrests and charges, even though the case has not yet been completely resolved.
The real target is AMLO
The real target of Gharaibeh's article is AMLO. When Gharaibeh repeats accusations that García Harfuch may have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel, he cites as a source Anabel Hernández's new book, The secret story: AMLO and the Sinaloa Cartel (2024) which, “by chance”, was published two months before the start of the electoral campaign that elected Claudia Sheinbaum as president. President AMLO denounced the book's false claims, referring to Hernández as the “queen of fiction” because of a series of allegations without any proof and demanding that she make the evidence public.[vi] Hernández failed to do so.
So, when Gharaibeh thinks he has managed to demonize García Harfuch, he moves on to the real target, the 4T government. The opening sentence of this excerpt from the article is revealing: “García Harfuch not only remained shielded from responsibility, he acquired more and more power.” Yes, García Harfuch became Mexico City's Secretary of Citizen Security under Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum from 2019 to 2023 and joined MORENA in 2019. I'm not sure why Gharaibeh insinuates that this proves anything.
Even the ambush by 50 assassins against García Harfuch in June 2020 — in which two of his bodyguards and a passerby were killed with assault rifles that destroyed his armored car and he himself received three gunshot wounds (in 414 shots) — is used by Gharaibeh against him. The journalist uses a quote from a newspaper that describes García Harfuch as “a smart and eager guy” (Is this equivalent to being corrupt? Does this prove anything?). But if you read the article in full, you will realize that it is a very positive description of an agent who risks his life fighting organized crime in Mexico. Referring to his heavy daily schedule, García Harfuch told journalist Jacobo García, from El País: “This is not a police officer who hides or takes refuge in his office. We are more active and more motivated than ever to reduce crime.”[vii]
In an article from with the BBC (June 27, 2020) regarding the attack on García Harfuch, Manelich Castilla Craviotto, former general commissioner of the Mexican Federal Police (2016-2018), referred to García Harfuch as “one of the most valuable assets that the The Mexican state is ready to tackle the cancer of organized crime.” The report of with the BBC suggests that there is no doubt that it was the blows that García Harfuch dealt against organized crime throughout his career that were crucial to his becoming their target.[viii]
Mr. Gharaibeh is not satisfied even with “a brilliant analysis of Sheinbaum's policies on organized crime in Mexico City and his potential to 'replicate his success on a national scale' as president,” in Wall Street Journal.[ix] He criticizes the WSJ not to mention an attack by a rogue police command on the headquarters of an investment company linked to drug trafficking in a neighborhood of Mexico City where he “planted fake weapons and drugs, deactivated security cameras and stole more than 70 million pesos in cash”.
The insinuation is in the phrase “agents under the command of García Harfuch”, which is grossly misleading, as it deliberately gives the impression that the command that criminally attacked the company did so under his direct orders, which is completely false. All Mexico City police officers were technically and hierarchically under the command of García Harfuch. However, when it comes to producing false information about AMLO and the 4T, he is a “smart and eager guy”. This brings us to the heart of the matter in Gharaibeh's article.
In the final section, Gharaibeh appears with the real merchandise: “López Obrador has a strange relationship with the narco-state regime that he supposedly set out to transform. Evidence revealed by the DEA suggests that the Sinaloa Cartel funneled two million dollars into its first presidential campaign in 2006.” This section Gharaibeh titles “The Paradoxical Fourth Transformation”. What exactly is “paradoxical”? Well, regarding justice for the Ayotzinapa case, Gharaibeh’s false claim is that AMLO “systematically destroyed his own institutional efforts to seek justice.”
Furthermore, Gharaibeh goes on to show another paradox, namely that, after being elected in 2018 with the promise of transforming a Mexican society torn apart by the war on drugs, AMLO traveled six times to Badiraguato, allegedly the birthplace of drug trafficking in Mexico. Mexico, and who once even shook hands with El Chapo's elderly mother. Is this indisputable proof of AMLO's connection with drug traffickers that Gharaibeh intends to showcase? Or is it consistent with AMLO's approach to combating organized crime?
The president and Claudia Sheinbaum have repeatedly clarified that “hugs, not bullets” was never about embracing criminals — the narrative of the Mexican opposition and global corporate media — but about addressing the causes of criminal insecurity in Mexico. Claudia explained that it is about providing positive opportunities for young people so that they do not join organized crime. Mr. Gharaibeh is acutely aware of AMLO and Claudia's repeated clarifications of policy with which he might disagree, but instead his “journalistic” approach leads him to ignore it.
Scandalously, against everything that has been happening in Mexico since AMLO was elected president in 2018, Gharaibeh launches his most venomous barb: “it may now seem to the parents of the Ayotzinapa victims that the Fourth Transformation of Mexico was a complete revolution, a shift from 360 degrees, in which your country ended where it began: with the murderers of your children in power.”
Is Gharaibeh really serious? The accusation is simply absurd. The 4T government, led by AMLO, devised a cunning plan to win the presidency in order to ensure that those responsible for the murder of the 43 Ayotzinapa students could return to power!? This not only exposes the acrobatics of Gharaibeh's distorted journalism, but also shows how mendacious and false he is.
The Ayotzinapa case is complex and difficult. However, the work of the Truth Commission and the GIEI found many of the culprits. Through his work, 112 individuals were arrested, including 18 belonging to the cartel United Warriors, 14 were members of the National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA) and others were members of the armed forces, including two generals, a former commander of the 27th Infantry Battalion, a captain, two sergeants, a lieutenant, a sub-lieutenant, three corporals, 10 soldiers and a member of the Navy Secretariat (SEMAR).
The actions include the extradition request for Tomás Zerón de Lucio, plus the arrest of the former Secretary of Public Security of Guerrero, the former municipal president of Iguala, plus 74 municipal police officers (8 from Cocula, 7 from Huitzuco and 41 from Iguala , and 18 more at state, federal and ministerial level[X]. Was all of this designed by AMLO to put the killers of the Ayotzinapa students back in power? Please Mr. Gharaibeh!
Gharaibeh ends his mediocre work with an even bigger innuendo and lie, quoting the following: “If they are making such an effort to boldly lie about [García Harfuch] being [in Ayotzinapa], then it is probably because their participation is of great value for them to hide ”. Where is the proof of this? Gharaibeh provides no proof. What does the 4T government have that is “too valuable” to be hidden? The torrent of innuendo in Gharaibeh's article leads to only one conclusion: the government seeks to conceal connections to the Sinaloa cartel. Let us see, then, to what extent Gharaibeh's insinuations on this issue are valid.
From official government information on Operations against Drug Trafficking, we obtain the following numbers when we compare the period from December 1, 2012 to November 30, 2018 with the period from December 1, 2018 to March 31, 2024. They clearly show an intensification of success against drug trafficking in all key categories (the exception is marijuana because it was basically legalized in 2021).
Cocaine seizures in the last period (when AMLO was president) increased by 250%, methamphetamines by 20% (the most important drugs, given the size of the seizures), the amount of dollars seized by 180%, the amount of Mexican pesos by 50%, the number of clandestine laboratories more than 310% and the number of people arrested almost 15%. So, let's be clear, is this successful fight against drug trafficking also part of AMLO's cunning plan to hide something of “great value”, Mr. Gharaibeh?
| Operations against drug trafficking | 01/12/212 a 30/11/2018 | 01/12/2018 a 31/03/2024 |
| Marijuana kg | 3.939.480 | 562.640 |
| Cocaine kg | 22.291 | 55.054 |
| Heroin kg | 2.009 | 1.246 |
| Methamphetamine kg | 117.117 | 137.022 |
| US dollars | 66.574.565 | 123.820.896 |
| Mexican pesos | 192.598.937 | 287.653.350 |
| Laboratories | 678 | 2.153 |
| People arrested | 39.756 | 45.268 |
| Source: Government of Mexico, 30 June 2024, https://www.gob.mx/sedena/acciones-y-programas/operaciones-contra-el-narcotrafico-6963 | ||
Conclusions
Mr. Gharaibeh's article is a mediocre work that uses innuendo, trickery, deliberate omissions, blatant distortions, misrepresentations and lies rather than facts. His article has four sections, none of which confirm, demonstrate or prove his narrative designed to tar AMLO and the 4T government with the brush of drug trafficking. Thus, there is no “rebirth” of Omar García Harfuch; nor is there evidence that he was involved in the dirty war at any time (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s or later).
There was no cover-up on the part of AMLO or the 4T government; García Harfuch rose through the ranks, but there was nothing worrying about it. The so-called “paradoxical transformation” of 4T into a group that cunningly plans to put in power those responsible for the murder of the 43 Ayotzinapa students is an unusual allegation.
Please, NACLA, publish the work of real investigative reporters instead of engaging with the brown press that promotes right-wing conspiracy theories.[xi]
*Francisco Dominguez is professor of political science at the University of Middlesex (England).
Translation: Fernando Lima das Neves.
Notes
[I] In an article in DW (“El turbulento 'triunfo' de Claudia Sheinbaum”, https://www.dw.com/es/el-turbulento-triunfo-de-claudia-sheinbaum/a-69353564), Hernández claims that, “if drug trafficking influenced the 2021 and 2024 elections, what would happen in 2025?”; Hernández uses the typical sexist trope against female leaders, “Claudia, the eternal student, AMLO, the master.”
[ii] It is interesting that in another article on the Ayotzinapa case (September 2022), Gharaibeh does not mention García Harfuch at all, but correctly states that the Truth Commission convened by President AMLO published a report that concluded that the forced disappearance of the Ayotzinapa 43 constituted a “state crime” and also that the minister of foreign affairs Ebrard, on behalf of the government, was trying to extradite Zerón de Lucio, https://nacla.org/israel-cybersurveillance-mexico-case-ayotzinapa-43.
[iii] Publisher Code of Conduct, IPSO, especially clause 1, https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/.
[iv] The first report is 525 pages, the second 605 pages and the summary 40 pages.
[v] Al Jazeera, “Mexico's new president forms truth commission on missing students”, December 4, 2018, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/4/mexicos-new-president-forms-truth-commission-on-missing-students.
[vi] César Jiménez, “AMLO says that Anabel Hernández is 'La reina de la Ficción'; she asks to test the connections with the Cártel de Sinaloa: 'If she presents it to me, destroy it'”, Infobae, May 23, 2024, https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2024/05/23/amlo-dice-que-anabel-hernandez-es-la-reina-de-la-ficcion-pide-pruebe-los-nexos-con-cartel-de-sinaloa-si-las-presenta-me-destruye/.
[vii] Jacobo García, “Omar García Harfuch, the Mexican police chief who survived being shot at 414 times”, El País, June 21, 2021, https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-06-21/omar-garcia-harfuch-the-mexican-police-chief-who-survived-being-shot-at-414-times.html#?rel=listaapoyo.
[viii] Marcos González Díaz, “Who is Omar García Harfuch and why he was the objective of an unprecedented attack of violence in Mexico City”, BBC Mundo, June 26, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-53198159. (Castilla is also not mentioned in the GIEI reports).
[ix] José de Córdoba, “Santiago Pérez and Steve Fisher”, Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/mexico-claudia-sheinbaum-organized-crime-us-assistance-a8e9d15c.
[X] Press Release, “Comisión Ayotzinapa ratifies President AMLO’s commitment to resolve the issue as a matter of State”, Government of Mexico, July 27, 2023, https://www.gob.mx/segob/prensa/comision-ayotzinapa-ratifica-el-compromiso-del-presidente-amlo-de-resolver-el-tema-como-asunto-de-estado-340783.
[xi] The author wrote this text for the UK Mexico Solidarity Forum and for the US Mexico Solidarity Project, but is solely responsible for its content.
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