Mexico & Nafta - March 2011 (ISSN 1741-444X)

On 7 February MVS Radio sacked its star presenter, Carmen Aristegui, after she refused to apologise for referring to President Felipe Calderón's alleged alcohol abuse problems. Her removal produced a media storm and her reinstatement on 21 February.

The rumours about Calderón's drink problem, which have been swirling around Mexico City for the past 18 months, erupted into the public domain on 3 February, when deputies from the left-wing Partido del Trabajo (PT) put up a banner in congress which read: “Would you let a drunk drive a car? No, Really? So why do you let one run the country?" The banner bore an unflattering picture of Calderón.

The PT's stunt at the opening of the congressional term prompted a walkout by Calderón's ruling Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) deputies. The PT is aligned with Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a radical left-wing leader who still does not accept that Calderón defeated him in the 2006 presidential election. López Obrador now wants to prevent any alliance between the PAN and left-wing parties, headed by the Partido de la Revolución Democrática, but also including the PT and Convergencia, in this year's state elections and next year's presidential election.

MVS said that it had terminated Aristegui's contract because she had referred to Calderón's drink problem as though it was a fact rather than a rumour or allegation. CNN en Español, a US broadcaster, stood by Aristegui and refused to drop her nightly TV show. All Aristegui had said in her MVS morning radio show was that the PT's banner merited a formal response from the presidential spokesman.

This response came on 9 February, when Calderón's private secretary, Roberto Gil Zuarth, said that Calderón was in good health, usually starting work at 6am and working through until 10pm.