Twitter Latin America coordinator exposed as right-wing operative, amid
anti-AMLO social media purge
BEN NORTON·JANUARY 24, 2021
The Grayzone
While Mexicos progressive President AMLO challenges the Big Tech
corporations growing censorship, Twitter Latin Americas public policy head
was exposed as a right-wing political operative.
Asenior executive at Twitter Latin America spent years working for
right-wing Mexican politicians, including the notoriously corrupt Felipe
Calderón. During his tenure as president, Calderón reportedly operated death
squads, coordinated with drug cartels, and ordered the assassination of
journalists. He even publicly called for an armed rebellion to overthrow
the countrys current, democratically elected leader.
Twitter has claimed the administrators lengthy political history has no
influence over his work at the social media giant. But amid a wave of social
media censorship that has targeted left-wing users, many Mexicans are crying
foul.
As US Big Tech corporations are becoming more brazen in their direct
interference in countries political affairs, the Mexican government has
initiated an international campaign to resist social media censorship.
When US President Donald Trump was suspended by Twitter in January, Mexicos
left-wing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemned the move as a
dangerous precedent.
Yes, social media should not be used to incite violence and all of that,
but that cannot be a reason to suspend freedom of expression; that should
not be used as an excuse, López Obrador said in a press conference on
January 14. How can a company bestow upon itself omnipotent, absolute
power, like some type of Spanish Inquisition on the right to free
expression?
Known popularly as AMLO, López Obrador has spoken out repeatedly and
forcefully against social media censorship, recognizing that it targets not
only right-wing supporters of Trump, but also his own progressive followers.
Officials in AMLOs administration have contacted governments in the
European Union, Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia to organize a
joint action against internet censorship. I can tell you that, in the first
G20 meeting we have, there will be a proposal on this issue, AMLO said.
In the weeks following Twitters censorship of Trump, the company
intensified its crackdown on left-wing Mexican activists. A group of
prominent supporters of López Obrador were suspended in coordinated fashion,
suggesting they were being targeted not for violating any terms of use on
the website, but because of their politics.
Mexicans protested that the pro-AMLO influencers were banned just days after
a right-wing Mexican celebrity took to Twitter to call for López Obrador to
be assassinated, and faced no punishment.
On January 18, Mexican social media influencer @Joe_Trouble, who has nearly
2 million Twitter followers, tweeted, On Obrador, we need to use the same
vaccine that they used against Kennedy an obvious call for Mexicos
left-wing president to be shot in the head. But Twitter did not suspend
@Joe_Trouble, whose account is verified with a blue check mark; all the
company did was delete his tweet.
Just three days later, however, Twitter suspended the accounts of numerous
big-name AMLO supporters, without providing any explanation for their
banishment.
The purge of Mexican leftists was only the latest example of Silicon Valley
corporations silencing activists from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Palestine,
Iran, China, Russia, and other countries that have been targeted by the US
government.
Many Mexicans, including President López Obrador himself, placed the blame
firmly on Twitters company staff. In a morning press briefing on January
20, AMLO pointed to a top executive with a long record of work with
conservative Mexican politicians, including the progressive presidents most
powerful rival.
The operatives name is Hugo Rodríguez Nicolat. Before he was hired as
Twitter Latin Americas current director of public policy, Rodríguez worked
directly for Mexicos right-wing National Action Party (PAN), filling top
roles in both the party and the administration of former President Felipe
Calderón.
Mexican opposition politicians and even some major Spanish-language media
outlets falsely claimed that AMLOs statements about Rodríguez were
incorrect, by misrepresenting his words. But the Twitter executive boasts of
his work for the PAN on his publicly available LinkedIn profile.
Rodríguez is not the only Twitter executive with clear political ties. In
2019, it was exposed that Twitters top Middle East editor was also working
with the UK Armys psychological operations (psyops) unit, which admits to
waging information warfare.
The revelation that one of Spanish-language Twitters most senior
administrators worked for a former right-wing Mexican leader credibly
accused of widespread corruption and repression set off a political
firestorm inside the country.
Twitter is one of Mexicos most popular social media platforms. Most major
politicians are active on the site, as is a vast community of journalists
and communicators who wield considerable influence on Mexican politics.
The vast majority of mainstream media outlets in Mexico are aggressively
anti-AMLO, and openly biased against his left-wing Fourth Transformation
(4T) movement. This has made social networks like Twitter an alternative
base for pro-AMLO perspectives that are almost entirely absent in mainstream
media.
AMLOs Twitter support base is so substantial that his supporters were able
to get hashtags #TwitterCensura (Twitter censors) and #TwitterEsPanista
(Twitter is a PAN supporter) to trend on the website in Mexico.
As the controversy grew, Twitter suspended the accounts of more prominent
AMLO supporters, whose list of followers numbered in the hundreds of
thousands. The suspensions took place within minutes of one another, pouring
fuel on the fire, and confirming the allegations of political bias in the
minds of AMLOs online base.
Faced with a mounting scandal, Twitter issued a vague statement denying the
involvement of specific individuals an oblique reference to Hugo Rodríguez
Nicolat in policy decisions and suspensions.
While Rodríguez and Twitter have publicly insisted that his political
history does not affect his work at the company, The Grayzone has uncovered
examples of Rodríguez using his influential position to help amplify
US-backed coup attempts in both Venezuela and Nicaragua, offering Twitter
Latin Americas massive platform to US-sponsored right-wing regime-change
activists.
A US-schooled right-wing operative becomes Twitters top Latin American
lobbyist
A look at Rodríguezs professional career shows how one of Spanish-language
Twitters most powerful executives was cultivated by elite institutions in
the United States, worked for an NGO funded by the US government, and
established himself as a major player in Silicon Valley Big Tech
corporations.
Hugo Rodriguez Nicolat LinkedIn PAN Twitter Mexico
Rodríguez got his start studying at Columbia Universitys School of
International and Public Affairs (SIPA), an institution that trains elite
politicians from around the world, as part of a double-degree program with
the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science. (Tuition,
room, and board for one academic year at SIPA costs nearly $90,000 USD.
Mexicos minimum wage under Calderón fell 43% in his six-year term, and the
average Mexican family with three-full time workers was surviving on just
$300 per month.)
After graduating from the worlds most exclusive academic institutions,
Rodríguez returned to Mexico to work as an advisor to right-wing politicians
in the Senate, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Rodríguez was then hired as the right-wing PAN partys international
projection coordinator from 2005 to 2006. He described his duties as
follows: Organized activities and events that promoted the Partys policies
and positions internationally. Prepared speeches and briefing materials for
congressmen of the Party when asked to address international issues.
Then, in 2006, Twitter Latin Americas current public policy director served
on the transition team for President-elect Calderón, of the PAN.
Calderón is López Obradors main political rival, and has overseen campaigns
aimed at destabilizing and removing the sitting left-wing president from
power. In July 2020, Calderón openly called for an armed rebellion to
overthrow AMLOs government (along with the Chavista government in
Venezuela).
Calderón is a major US ally, who coordinated closely with the George W. Bush
administration, launching a disastrous war on drugs that led to 102,859
deaths and 22,112 disappearances in his six-year term. He is also notorious
in Mexico for overseeing widespread, systemic corruption.
In August 2020, a top Mexican military officer stated that Calderón created
a death squad that kidnapped, tortured, and murdered civilians. Former
security officials also said Calderón collaborated with drug cartels and
even ordered the assassination of a journalist.
Under Calderóns government, Hugo Rodríguez Nicolat worked in senior
positions at Mexicos National Institute of Migration. He was later
appointed an economic adviser for the Calderón administrations Mexican
mission to international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, including the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Soon after the PAN lost power in December 2012, Rodríguez went on to work
for an NGO in Mexicos southern Chiapas state called Escalera. This
organization is funded by the US governments soft-power arm USAID, along
with the Ford automobile corporation.
Next, Rodríguez took a position with the ride-sharing giant Uber. He worked
his way into a position as director of the companys public policy and
government relations in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean,
leveraging his political connections to push for more favorable economic
policies.
In April 2017, Twitter promoted Rodriguez as head of public policy for
Twitter Latin America. On LinkedIn, he describes himself as an Ambassador
for Twitter in Spanish Speaking LatAm to elected officials, government
agencies, ministers, as well as civil society entities engaged in policy
making issues of importance to Twitter and our users.
Hugo Rodriguez Nicolat LinkedIn Uber Twitter Mexico
While Twitter and Rodríguez himself claim to be apolitical, his Twitter
history shows the companys Latin America public policy coordinator
promoting US-backed regime-change operations.
In February 2019, the Donald Trump administration backed a coup attempt
against Venezuelas socialist government. USAID (which funded Rodríguezs
former employer in Chiapas) collaborated with the US military to try to
violently force a so-called aid convoy across a bridge on the
Colombian-Venezuelan border.
Rodríguez used his Twitter account at the time to encourage people to join
this US government-backed AidVenezuela campaign, a thinly disguised coup
attempt.
A year prior, Rodríguez promoted another US-backed right-wing coup attempt,
this time against Nicaraguas democratically elected Sandinista government.
In October 2018, Rodríguez helped coordinate a discussion with the
right-wing Nicaraguan insurgent Víctor Cuadras. The event was officially
sponsored by Twitter Latin America.
Cuadras was a key figure in a violent 2018 coup attempt aimed at toppling
the Nicaraguan government of President Daniel Ortega.
Just a few months before Rodríguez helped coordinate the interview, Cuadras
took at trip to Washington, DC to lobby for more direct US intervention in
the coup attempt. On a junket financed by the US government-funded
organization Freedom House, Cuadras and other regime-change activists met
with neoconservative politicians including Senators Ted Cruz and Marco
Rubio, and advocated for Washington to impose suffocating sanctions on their
home country. (The US Congress went on to successfully pass these crippling
economic measures.)
The Grayzone revealed that Twitter relies on the US government-funded
Freedom House to censor foreign media outlets.
While Twitter denied political bias or individual involvement in censoring
accounts, the suspicious suspensions of several high-profile AMLO supporters
raises serious questions about the platforms ostensible commitment to
neutrality.
Pro-AMLO influencers: Twitter closed my account without any explanation
When the #TwitterCensura (Twitter censors) and #TwitterEsPanista (Twitter is
a PAN supporter) hashtags were trending on January 21, Twitter suspended
prominent AMLO supporters who helped to kick off the campaign.
Among the accounts censored in coordinated fashion were @PumaChairo,
@ElReyTuitero, @Miriam_Junne, and @LOVREGA. Collectively, these users
boasted more than 200,000 followers.
The activists behind these accounts told The Grayzone they were banned after
criticizing Twitter Latin America public policy coordinator Nicolat for his
past work with the right-wing PAN party.
@Miriam_Junne said she had used Twitter for 10 years and had never
encountered problems in the past. Suddenly, amid the #TwitterEsPanista
campaign, an email arrived informing her that her account had been
suspended. Twitter did not bother to explain which guideline she allegedly
violated.
Look, this is not a coincidence, @PumaChairo told The Grayzone. Three
accounts with tens of thousands of followers that support the 4T (Fourth
Transformation) were banned in the span of just 20 minutes.
After @PumaChairo helped kick off the #TwitterEsPanista campaign, he said he
was targeted by a massive trolling campaign. Hundreds of accounts spammed
him, working in tandem to file mass reports to Twitter and get him banned.
The trolling and mass reporting campaigns were led in part by the right-wing
Mexican activist Alejandro Baqueiro, who operates under the profile
@BaksLive.
Baqueiro has boasted about his role in getting left-wing users suspended. He
tweeted a photoshopped image of Felipe Calderón as the all-powerful comic
book character Thanos, bragging in the caption of Eliminating half of the
leftist accounts on Twitter.
Another prominent user who joined @BaksLive in the coordinated censorship
campaign was right-wing activist @HatsumiNonaka. Nonaka openly admitted that
they were coordinating mass reporting sprees to try to get leftists
suspended.
Lets learn to report, she tweeted, linking to information on how to
falsely accuse a pro-AMLO account of malicious use of automization by
claiming it is spam or a fake profile.
After helping to get the left-wing accounts suspended, Nonaka taunted AMLO
supporters: Suddenly I have been so happy singing, as if my crush had told
me that they like me too
I am simply enjoying the suspensions
hahahahahahaha.
The right-wing trolls also coordinated to try to suspend the account of Sin
Censura, a popular pro-AMLO YouTube channel with more than 2 million views.
Because of the nearly universal anti-AMLO bias in Mexicos mainstream media,
Sin Censura has become a major platform for the majority of Mexicans who
support the progressive president, but do not see their views represented on
TV.
Sin Censura reported on January 22 that unknown people had been trying to
hack into their Twitter account.
Twitter has done nothing to stop these coordinated, politically motivated
mass-reporting campaigns, which are explicitly aimed at silencing speech and
censoring the views of left-wing activists.
It is widely suspected that the PAN and other right-wing groups in Mexico
pay for coordinated teams of trolls to spread anti-AMLO disinformation on
Twitter and other social media platforms.
In fact, as The Grayzone reported, a US government-linked PR firm located a
few blocks from the White House was exposed in 2020 for spending millions of
dollars to spread fake news on social media on behalf of the right-wing
opposition in Mexico, Venezuela and Bolivia.
Ironically, while right-wing groups that support US foreign-policy interests
are waging open propaganda wars on social media with almost complete
impunity, Twitter is falsely accusing grassroots left-wing activists in
Mexico and other countries of coordinated inauthentic behavior, and using
the unsubstantiated allegation to suspend their accounts.
Twitter closed my account without any explanation, the censored pro-AMLO
user @ElReyTuitero told The Grayzone. I was suspended along with other
pro-AMLO users, supposedly for manipulating the network, that is to say,
for using bots. I never had any warning on the platform. And obviously I
dont use bots. If my account has been successful, it is because of my ideas
and because people like to read me.
He concluded, I think that Twitter suspended the accounts to send a message
to President López Obrador, to show him that they can silence the 4T (Fourth
Transformation) at any moment, just like they silenced Trump and his
followers in the United States.
