The new confines of hatred promoted from the palace

By Rocío Correa

I have read and shared with friends and family the excellent text by my dearest friend, Marisa Iglesias, about the infamous attempt on the life of Mexican journalist Ciro Gómez Leyva more than a month ago. Ciro Gómez Leyva.

Of all the responses I received applauding the writer of such a melancholic and nostalgic column, I certainly want to quote verbatim the one from my Croatian friend Bojana. A woman of reading, from the New York Times and the Washington Post, della Repubblica, la Stampa il Corriere della Sera.

Bojana lived through the war in the Balkans as a child and then as a teenager, almost as an adult, she came to Italy to study "lingue straniere" at the University of Padua . She ended up marrying an Italian and making her home in this country that has welcomed both of us to this day.

And I quote:

"Bellissimo l'articolo. Frustrating news. Incredible how people with power, weapons, arrogance and the conviction of being untouchable can have the patience of a man "armed" only with words".

And I translate:

"Beautiful article. Frustrating news. Incredible how people with power, weapons, arrogance and conviction of being untouchable can be afraid of a man "armed" only with words."

It is absurd to note that the aggravation against this man armed with words sharpened what I call the New Confines of Hate, evident, uncontrollable and replicated indiscriminately by social networks.

A vivid example is the constant attacks on Mexican journalists, obviously among them Ciro Gómez Leyva by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which should make us reflect on the new confines of the hatred I am referring to.

What the president has allowed himself to declare a few days before and especially a few hours after and even worse, what he continues to maintain in his speech more than a month after the attempt on the life of the Mexican journalist is really unseemly and offensive, he has pronounced in his "morning" serious and harmful statements to the integrity of a person, offering cannon fodder to those who online and offline promote hatred and violence that is promoted from the National Palace.

On Friday morning, December 16, Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he wanted to express his solidarity to Ciro for the attack he suffered "because the main thing is that no one should be bothered, bothered, affected, harmed and no one should be attacked, much less have their life taken away from them, send Ciro a hug" but has not hesitated to continue completing his statement to the point of saying "it could have been a self-attack, not because he made it, but because someone did it to affect us, I do not rule it out" which by the way, I open parenthesis (if it was done by others, then it is no longer a self-attack, or not?) without forgetting that phrase days before the aggression to Ciro "If you only listen to Ciro or Loret de Mola or Sarmiento, no puss, besides, this one is even harmful to your health, if you listen to them too much, you can even get a brain tumor".

Once again on Friday, January 20, 2023, without shame or embarrassment, he dared to take up again as a possible cause of the aggression suffered by the journalist the "self-attack".

The response of the web about the attack suffered by Ciro was immediate as soon as the news broke and the expressions of solidarity towards Gómez Leyva were immediate.

But also another part of the networks fed by hatred and following in the footsteps of their messiah, have not had the slightest qualms and much less respect for those who show solidarity and empathy for such a vile and disastrous act, giving away with all their fury offenses and verbal aggressions to those who are uncomfortable with the statements outside of all legality by those who in their baths of humility had the luxury of raiding the National Palace.

The president of Mexico has become the first promoter of bitterness among Mexicans, that president who is convinced of acting "in favor of the people" in his right to "information" is actually acting as one of those adolescent hoaxes that feel "strong" intimidating with his "power" and is giving the implicit right to his "defenders" to transgress any limit of verbal aggression to his "adversaries" in the networks and as we are already seeing a very easy border to cross from the virtual to the real.

No, Mr. Chairman. No, at any level and under any circumstances, it is not right to make this kind of statements. These offensive ways about any journalist are absolutely not.

Padova, Italy
*Quotations from the Chairman's statements are verbatim transcripts.

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