’Match-match’ politicians violated electoral ban
A Facebook page paid millions of pesos to promote content favorable to politicians from the Citizen Movement, including Samuel García, Mariana Rodríguez and Jorge Álvarez Máynez. It also spent money on posts attacking Adrián de la Garza, Rodríguez Cantú’s opponent.
Okey Mx, a Facebook page with 288 thousand followers that spreads videos, memes and advertising, posted electoral content in favor of Mariana Rodríguez, candidate for mayor of Monterrey; Samuel García, governor of Nuevo León; and Jorge Álvarez Máynez, candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, during the electoral ban.
Among the publications of Okey Mx there is also disinformation through surveys with manipulated results, as they presented inverted trends in favor of Rodríguez Cantú and in which the emblems of media outlets such as the newspaper El Norte were used, from which the Movimiento Ciudadano party distanced itself.
The same platform paid money so that posts with information against politicians opposed to Movimiento Ciudadano profiles would have a greater reach. This is the case of posts with negative information about Adrián de la Garza, a PRI politician who ran against Mariana Rodríguez in the race for the municipal presidency of the capital of Nuevo León.
The Los Ilusionistas alliance, coordinated by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) of which Mexicans Against Corruption is a part, found in Meta’s ad library that at least 37 propaganda ads were published by Okey Mx on days of prohibition.
Okey Mx broadcast advertisements in favor of Mariana Rodríguez and against Adrián de la Garza during the ban.
To ensure that the content could be distributed more effectively, the website paid between 2 and 2.4 million pesos to achieve 22.8 million impressions on the social network Facebook, owned by Meta.
The reviewed ads circulated between May 21 and June 3, according to the platform’s records, which implied a violation of the electoral ban that began on May 30 and ended on June 2 at 6 p.m. (when the polling stations closed).
The National Electoral Institute (INE) reports that the ban is a set of measures aimed at making citizens reflect on the meaning of their vote. This period includes three days prior to the election and prohibits campaign events, the dissemination of all types of electoral propaganda, government propaganda, and the dissemination and publication of results of polls on electoral preferences.
Fake polls in favor of Mariana
On Tuesday, May 21, publications began to circulate with supposed polls that were in effect until the days of the electoral ban. These polls claimed that Mariana Rodríguez was leading the preferences for the election for mayor of Monterrey.
In at least one of these polls, the results were falsified, the image of the media was illegally appropriated and the results were disseminated despite the restrictions imposed by the INE.
On May 28, five days before the election, the newspaper El Norte published the results of a survey in which Adrián de la Garza, the PRI candidate, led the polls with 37 percent. In second place was Mariana Rodríguez with 31 percent. “Adrián makes a comeback and Morena collapses” was the title of the study published by the publishing house.
That same day, the Okey Mx website began to circulate a poll with the results reversed: Rodríguez Cantú in first place and De la Garza in second. The image, however, had the emblems of El Norte with the headline “Mariana consolidates her position in first place.”
Okey Mx paid between 35,000 and 40,000 pesos for that ad alone, so that it would have between 900,000 and one million impressions on social media. The ad was in effect from May 28 to June 1, according to Meta, so it was distributed illegally during the ban.
Thousands of flyers with the same survey printed on them were distributed in the city of Monterrey that day. The Movimiento Ciudadano party distanced itself from the distribution of the manipulated advertising.
Left: Poll published on May 28 by the newspaper El Norte. Right: Poll published by Okey Mx with altered results; the same image was printed on thousands of flyers that were distributed in Monterrey.
That was not the only poll that was released in which Mariana was given the advantage; another 14 were released on the networks during the voting reflection process.
“Mariana Rodríguez has a wide lead over her competitors and Adrián de la Garza falls to third place,” reads another post accompanied by block graphics in which the orange color predominates with respect to the other candidates who were Mauricio Cantú, from Morena-Verde Ecologista; and Adrián de la Garza, from PAN-PRI-PRD; the latter was the winner of the contest.
According to the Meta library, this publication circulated on June 1 and 2, that is, on the weekend of the election.
Survey released during blackout days in favor of Mariana Rodríguez.
Samuel’s defense and Maynez’s promotion
Samuel García, governor of Nuevo León and husband of Mariana Rodríguez, was also promoted by Okey Mx to publicize a video of almost 13 minutes in which he defended himself for publications in the media in which alleged irregularities in the acquisition of land by his family were revealed.
Between June 1 and 3, the Facebook page spent between 175,000 and 200,000 pesos to ensure that the video reached more than a million views on the social network.
In the recording, Samuel García responds to Grupo Reforma’s publications, claiming that they are attacks against his government, his wife and his party colleague, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, who was then running for the presidency.
“As always, I will stand up, especially when it comes to defaming my family and in this case my father, my brothers and, I have no doubt, my political project (…) it is clear to me that they have an agenda pro Xóchitl (Gálvez -former presidential candidate-), pro “PRIAN”, pro Adrián (de la Garza); they want to harm Máynez, they want to harm my wife, by hitting me,” said the governor.
Screenshot of the video in which Samuel García accuses Grupo Reforma of attacking him. The material was released the day before the election.
Two other video ads with content favorable to Jorge Álvarez Máynez were broadcast between May 27 and June 3.
Okey Mx spent between 200 and 250 thousand pesos so that the 44-second recordings reached 1.4 million impressions. The materials mention that Máynez is in second place in the preferences in Nuevo León.
Similarly, the videos in support of Máynez violated the electoral ban by not respecting the prohibition on the dissemination of poll results between May 30 and June 2.
Scheduled videos about electoral preferences in favor of Máynez.
Campaign against Adrian de la Garza
While Okey Mx promoted content supporting the Movimiento Ciudadano candidates and the governor of Nuevo León, it also did so with advertisements containing negative information about Adrián de la Garza, the PAN-PRI-PRD candidate for Monterrey who turned out to be the winner.
The Facebook page paid 910 thousand pesos for 10 pieces of content to be advertised and have more than 7.8 million impressions on the social network.
From May 26 until election day, for example, a video was broadcast for which a payment of between 250 and 300 thousand pesos was made, in order to exceed 2 million impressions.
“The worst of the PRI wants to return to power with its endless corruption. Adrián de la Garza has already shown us that his only ambition is money and power,” reads the post that accompanies a video in which political scandals of the parties that nominated De la Garza are discussed.
Advertisement against Adrián de la Garza and the PRI and PAN parties, broadcast during the electoral ban by Okey Mx.
Monterrey case: The challenge to the election
In the election for the municipal presidency of Monterrey, Adrián de la Garza was the winner with 37 percent of the votes and in second place was Mariana Rodríguez with 31 percent, according to the count of the minutes as of June 10.
On June 13, with a billboard in the background with the message “It’s for Monterrey” and in front of the media, Mariana Rodríguez announced that she would challenge the election won by De la Garza. The former candidate of the orange movement explained that the day before she presented the 800-page lawsuit with three boxes of additional evidence.
He listed 23 reasons presented to the Electoral Court of the State of Nuevo Leon to reverse the voting process. Rodriguez called his opponent an “electoral criminal” and accused him of having ordered ministerial police to steal the election.
The member of the Emec party stated that members of the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Nuevo Leon collaborated with De la Garza by contributing money to his campaign; she also accused them of illegally detaining members of Movimiento Ciudadano and inventing crimes against them so that they remain in preventive detention.
He also accused them of brutally beating part of the campaign team who were hospitalized and of issuing summons during the ban to polling station representatives to intimidate them and discourage them from participating in the election.
"It is no secret that the Attorney General’s Office is at the service of Adrián. They have been his employees for 20 years. They were with him from the State Investigation Agency to the mayor’s office of Monterrey, and he has already returned them all to the Attorney General’s Office," said Rodríguez.
The above was attributed to De la Garza for his time as director of the State Investigation Agency and head of the Attorney General’s Office of Nuevo León, an institution that preceded the current Prosecutor’s Office.
For his part, the elected candidate said that the evidence presented by Rodríguez Cantú is false and that he would take action to defend his victory at the polls.
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