A Beacon for Mexican Democracy Shines Less Brightly

MEXICO CITY —  For more than 20 years, the newsmagazine Proceso fearlessly confronted powerful Mexican politicians and exposed corruption. It was a beacon of independence in a country where most media nestled comfortably under the president’s thumb.

But the weekly magazine is now immersed in crisis. Sales have plummeted. In recent weeks, the editorial board split and nearly two dozen reporters resigned.

“For many years, Proceso was a sort of Rock of Gibraltar: steady, strong, always marking a clear path in the midst of confusion and the stolid official line,” columnist German Dehesa wrote in the daily Reforma newspaper. The current crisis, he said, “doesn’t just harm the inner life of a publication; thousands of Mexicans are morally damaged by this sad spectacle.”

Proceso was founded in 1976 by Julio Scherer, a charismatic editor. Then-President Luis Echeverria had just engineered Scherer’s ouster from the Mexico City daily Excelsior, outraged at the newspaper’s independence.

But Scherer would not be silenced. His Proceso quickly became a powerful voice questioning the then-prevailing one-party system. Relying on commercial advertising rather than the government publicity that sustained so many Mexican media outlets, Proceso investigated subjects that had been taboo--such as corruption in the families of presidents, and ties between the army and drug traffickers.

“Proceso’s role in the democratic transition was fundamental, especially during the ‘70s and ‘80s, when the regime was very closed,” said Raymundo Riva Palacio, a political analyst and top editor at the news weekly Milenio.

But since Scherer retired as editor in 1996, frequent battles have erupted involving the three-person team he named to replace him. As the power struggle escalated, the weekly’s circulation plunged, from 200,000 in 1996 to 70,000 last year, according to Carlos Marin, an editor who recently quit.

The crisis at Proceso went beyond infighting, analysts say. As Mexico became more democratic in recent years, several independent newspapers and radio programs appeared. Proceso had competition.

For decades, “Proceso did the only critical investigative journalism in Mexico. Proceso published everything the others didn’t dare to,” said Hector Aguilar Camin, a political analyst and novelist. “Now, other newspapers and magazines are beginning to have an approach to information like Proceso’s.”

Other newspapers weren’t the only ones taking over Proceso’s role. The magazine had once stood out as a rare critic of the often-feared government. But as part of the country’s democratic opening, academics, columnists, opposition politicians and others began to regularly criticize the authorities.

“Criticizing the government has stopped being news in Mexico,” Aguilar Camin noted.

Proceso’s crisis came to a head March 23. Scherer, who is president of the company that publishes the magazine, summoned the editorial team to a meeting to discuss cost-cutting, according to published accounts by several participants.

But they never got around to the budget. Once the three journalists arrived, Scherer reportedly told them that it was necessary to name a single editor to restore order at the weekly. He proposed that the magazine’s reporters vote for one of two candidates: Marin or Rafael Rodriguez Castaneda, members of the editing team.

But Marin and the third editor, Froylan Lopez Narvaez, angrily quit. In subsequent published interviews, they claimed that the vote had been organized to favor Rodriguez Castaneda.

Marin did not respond to requests for interviews. Scherer and Rodriguez Castaneda declined to comment on the episode, with the latter only saying: “What we have been and what we are will be shown through the pages of the magazine.”

Analysts say the loss of the highly respected Marin and nearly two dozen other journalists could make Proceso’s recovery difficult. The magazine that stood up to a powerful government has been most wounded by a war within.

In a letter to Scherer, several of the journalists who resigned wrote that the infighting had poisoned the atmosphere at the magazine. “The air at Proceso became impossible to breathe,” they wrote. “And we are sure that the naming of Mr. Rodriguez Castaneda isn’t going to clear it up.”