Sheinbaum’s mañanera in 60 seconds
- 🇺🇸 Sheinbaum sticks to her “political” reading of AMLO’s son’s visa revocation: Asked whether Andrés Manuel López Beltrán had ever been on authorities’ radar over huachicol fiscal, the president said flatly, “he was not,” and repeated that the cancelation of his U.S. visa is a political matter and a case of “interference in the decisions of Mexico.”
- 🎯 Opposition is using the case to “attack” the government, president says: Because the opposition “has no plan for the country,” Sheinbaum argued, it has seized on the revocation to attack “the project that we represent,” with a barrage of criticism from the right, pundits and media outlets after López Beltrán made the cancelation of his visa public in a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump.
- ⛽ Fuel smuggling “practically over,” according to the president: Sheinbaum said her administration has all but ended huachicol fiscal thanks to interventions in customs and a series of arrests. She complained that government critics ignore that progress in favor of using visa revocations of Morena officials as a political weapon.
- 🚫 “There was no list”: Defending legal adviser Luisa María Alcalde, Sheinbaum denied that a “blacklist” of journalists was presented at last Wednesday’s “right of reply” press conference. She said that Alcalde simply showed how stories from reporters such as Ciro Gómez Leyva, Joaquín López Dóriga, Ana Paula Ordorica, Azucena Uresti and Carlos Loret de Mola are amplified on social media to “create an opinion trend.”
Why today’s mañanera matters
The revocation of the U.S. visa of Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, a son of ex-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the former secretary of organization for the ruling Morena party, continues to be a major topic in the national conversation. The revocation came after dozens of other Morena officials, including Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila, were also stripped of their U.S. visas.
At her Tuesday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum once again offered her opinion on the situation amid calls from the opposition National Action Party (PAN) for López Beltrán to be investigated for alleged involvement in a tax evasion/fuel smuggling scheme known in Mexico as huachicol fiscal.
Today’s mañanera was also significant as Sheinbaum weighed in on another issue that has received significant attention in recent days. That issue is the presentation by presidential legal adviser Luisa María Alcalde of a list of high-profile journalists and media outlets whose critical coverage of the government is said to be amplified online in order to attack the federal government and the “fourth transformation” political movement that Sheinbaum leads.
Sheinbaum reiterates view that revocation of López Beltrán’s US visa was politically motivated
A reporter noted that the Federal Attorney General’s Office said on Monday that it has no proof that would warrant the commencement of an investigation into allegations that López Beltrán is involved in fuel-related crimes. He asked the president whether López Beltrán was ever on authorities’ “radar” for alleged involvement in huachicol fiscal.
“He was not,” Sheinbaum responded.
“And as I mentioned on Friday, from our point of view this is a political issue,” she said, referring to the revocation of López Beltrán’s U.S. visa.
“It’s not related to other issues,” Sheinbaum said.
Rather, she said, it’s a matter of “interference in the decisions of Mexico.”
“… There are other criminals, or alleged criminals, let’s put it that way, where there is no problem [with their U.S. visas],” Sheinbaum said.
“Or there are other politically exposed persons, as they call them, where it’s the other way around — they open the doors to them,” she said.
“I’m not going to name names because I don’t want to get into a controversy,” Sheinbaum said.
Sheinbaum: Opposition is using revocation of López Beltrán’s visa to ‘attack’ the government
Sheinbaum asserted that “as the opposition has no plan for the country,” it uses the revocation of López Beltrán’s visa to “attack the project that we represent.”
“They take away his visa, he decided to make it public with a letter [addressed to U.S. President Donald Trump] and then the barrage of criticism came from the conservative side of politics, from the right, from the pundits, from the media outlets,” she said.
Sheinbaum: Government has ‘practically’ put an end to huachicol fiscal
Sheinbaum asserted that her administration has “practically” put an end to “huachicol fiscal, or the smuggling of fuel.”
“It’s practically over thanks to the interventions that we’ve been carrying out in customs and the arrests that have been made,” she said.
Sheinbaum said that government critics don’t talk about the progress the government has made in combating huachicol fiscal.
Instead, they use revocations of Morena officials’ U.S. visas to attack the government, she reiterated.
“They have the right to do that. Nobody is going to censor them as they claim we will, but it is necessary to point out the work that has been done [to combat huachicol fiscal],” Sheinbaum said.
Sheinbaum defends her top legal adviser amid claims she disseminated a ‘blacklist’ of journalists
A reporter raised remarks made by Luisa María Alcalde at the “right of reply” press conference she held last Wednesday.
🔴La presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum repitió que “no hubo ninguna lista” de periodistas.
Explicó que los nombres de periodistas mencionados por Luisa María Alcalde buscaban mostrar cómo las redes sociales y plataformas digitales pueden amplificar información y generar tendencias de…
— Azucena Uresti (@azucenau) August 18, 2026
She asked Sheinbaum whether Alcalde, a former interior minister and national president of Morena, had not “directly blamed” certain journalists for initiating an “offensive” against the government because she said that those journalists are the source of anti-government messages that are subsequently amplified on social media, including by bots.
Alcalde faced significant criticism for presenting a so-called “blacklist” of journalists who are said to be opposed to the federal government. In addition, video footage of Sheinbaum saying in 2021 that the drawing up of lists of political adversaries is a practice of McCarthyism and Nazism was widely shared on social media.
On Tuesday morning, Sheinbaum asserted that Alcalde did not in fact present a list at her “right of reply” press conference, a relatively new initiative of the federal government.
“First, there was no list,” she said.
“Names were presented — what Luisa presented … what she showed is the use of digital platforms, of social media, to amplify a piece of news and even create fake news,” Sheinbaum said.
“That’s what she presented,” she said.
Sheinbaum said that Alcalde showed how “a piece of news from these journalists” — among whom were Ciro Gómez Leyva, Joaquín López Dóriga, Ana Paula Ordorica, Azucena Uresti and Carlos Loret de Mola —can be amplified on social media to “create an opinion trend.”
“There are multiple cases of this that we can talk about, many cases,” she said. Narco-government, narco-candidate, narco-president, all that,” Sheinbaum said.
The president went on to say that her government defends the right to free speech.
“Who here has been censored? Give me the name of a journalist we’ve censored,” Sheinbaum said.
“There isn’t one. Tell me the name of a media outlet we’ve censored. There isn’t one,” she said.
