EL SENDERO EN EL VALLE IMPERIAL

El periódico The Progress del condado del Valle Imperial (en la frontera con Mexicali), publicó una nota sobre El Sendero del Peje. Esta es la nota:

Political blog creating an impact in Mexico

By Mario Conde
For The Progress

With the current political situation that Mexico is living with right now, a political blog is breaking Mexico's old media monopoly and creating an impact in Mexico.

The website, www.senderodelpeje.com, was created by graphic designer Victor Hernandez. Hernandez attended San Diego State University for a BA in studio art then did his Master of Fine Arts program in graphic design with emphasis in interactive multimedia.

When asked about what motivated him to create this blog, Hernandez said that he loved to write about politics on several online bulletin boards but he saw a lot of censorship on the bulletin board threads when someone talked about left-wing politics in a good way.

"I got tired of that so I started a blog so I could write about Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Mexican politics without having some right-wing censor destroying what I was doing," Hernandez said.

Hernandez says that he supports Lopez Obrador because he has done a lot of good things, as mayor of Mexico City, that benefited the poor.

"Mexico is a country where over 54 percent of the population lives under the poverty line. And the right-PAN did nothing to solve the problem. On the contrary, millions of Mexican migrated illegally to the USA during Vicente Fox's administration, running away from poverty," he added.

Hernandez noticed that Lopez Obrador became the target of a massive series of attacks from the right in an attempt to keep him not just from being president of Mexico, but being a candidate for the presidential election.

"As most Mexicans, I couldn't explain to myself why was Andres attacked so viciously. Obviously the right wanted to decrease Andres popularity, but that didn't seem enough. It turned out the real reason was because Andres was one of the very few honest politicians today who would not play by the traditional rules of corruption in Mexican politics. The combination of social work and honesty made me realize Andres was the president Mexico needed," Hernandez said.

However, Hernandez says that the blog is not intended just to benefit Lopez Obrador but the blog is an independent effort to support the people.

"I don't support Lopez Obrador just to benefit him," he said. "I support him because I believe he's the politician needed by the people of Mexico. This isn't about a politician. It's about millions of people."

Hernandez says that the impact of the blog has been big in Mexico.

"We were the first ones to show hard evidence of the electoral fraud of 2006. And according to my sources, a lot of information we published in the blog served as the basis for the suit against the fraud that demanded a recount of the votes. It also showed the media in Mexico it was the end of their tight grasp on information. For that matter, now the media is starting to base some of their news stories on information found on political blogs," he noted.

Last week, Lopez Obrador started his TV show called "La Verdad sea Dicha" or "Let the truth be known." People working for Lopez Obrador had to pay over $1 million dollars to TV Azteca, the second largest television network in Mexico, to air a 30-minute television show that airs at one in the morning. Hernandez said that this television show will benefit Lopez Obrador.

"I know it will help because of my experience with senderodelpeje.com. Many people have told me that during the campaigns, and after the fraud, the media was not showing the truth at all and that just by having the blog as an information source meant a breath of fresh air they desperately needed,” Hernandez said.

"The thing is, when there is a voice that tells the truth, there's always hope. And hope is what most Mexicans desperately need right now," he continued.

Hernandez says that the Mexican media is just a mouthpiece of the government. He tells how the two largest television networks in Mexico, Televisa and TV Azteca, made a deal with the Fox administration to prevent a third network with national coverage to operate in Mexico. Hernandez said that Vicente Fox gave his word to Televisa that he would not allow a third network in Mexico in exchange for favorable treatment of his administration by the evening news.

"And as a consequence, today we have a situation in which the media giants and their partners in publishing and radio are now 100 percent the mouthpiece of the government once again. Think Fox News and the republicans, but on most of the media in the entire country," Hernandez said.

Aside from his duties with senderodelpeje.com, Victor Hernandez wants to do more documentaries. Hernandez made a documentary on the end of the protest camps in Mexico City. The documentary can be seen on the blog with English subtitles.

"I think film is becoming the only medium other than the web where you can tell the truth without censorship, and lots of people in Mexico have found documentaries as a great tool to be informed," he concluded.

Contact Mario Conde at (760) 562-9549 or mariobox12@yahoo.com

Una razón más para apoyar al peje en el 2007.