Unomásuno (English: One Plus One) is a Mexican daily tabloid newspaper circulated in Mexico City. Formed in 1977 by former employees of Mexico City's daily newspaper Excélsior, it became one of the leading leftist newspapers in Mexico during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The newspaper covered investigative topics that were often avoided by the rest of the Mexican press at the time, and it was a harsh critic of the Mexican government. By the mid-1980s, disagreements over the newspaper's management style led to internal divisions. Those who disagreed with Unomásuno and its future initiatives left in 1984 and formed La Jornada, another leftist daily in Mexico City.
In the late 1980s, Unomásuno was a victim of a backlash from the Mexican government for publishing articles highlighting a growing opposition faction within Mexico's dominant political party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Its founder was threatened with prison for tax evasion, and the newspaper was forced to pay hefty fines. In 1989, its founder sold the newspaper to a PRI-affiliated businessman. Under the new ownership, Unomásuno became a propaganda organ for the PRI and published articles criticizing leftist opposition groups. Its circulation declined drastically over the years, and although Unomásuno was resold in 1998, it continued to experience financial difficulties.
In 2002, two businessmen from the State of Mexico bought Unomásuno for MXN$5 million. The new management promised to help return the newspaper to its heyday, but its readership continued to decline. Several of its journalists complained the new owners were forcing employees to self-censor and to avoid writing critical articles about certain politicians. In 2015 the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned Unomásuno under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The newspaper's owner was accused of having ties with, and providing support to, Los Cuinis, a drug trafficking group in Jalisco allied with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Background and origins
Unomásuno is a Mexican daily tabloid-style newspaper based in Mexico City. Its name originated from the idea that the contributions of a reporter and the participation of readers were meant to be one. In Spanish, "one plus one" is spelled uno más uno; by joining them together as Unomásuno, the founders were symbolizing the unification of both concepts. The newspaper was formed on 14 November 1977, by Manuel Becerra Acosta, a journalist who worked for the newspaper Excélsior. Excélsior, known for its critical stances against the Mexican government, was headed by Julio Scherer García throughout the 1960s and '70s. The Excélsior team he hired was made up of independent and critically minded reporters. Its articles appealed to Mexican readers because of their independent viewpoints and the newspaper's criticism of government officials. The government was particularly concerned with Excélsiors coverage of the mass murder of student protestors by the Mexican Army in 1968. To end its critical stance against the government, the administration of Mexican President Luis Echeverría (1970–1976) channeled money to the newspaper's employees to stage a coup against Scherer García. Excélsiors staff was already divided internally, and the newspaper was having financial problems because of poor management. On 8 July 1976, at least 250 staff members walked out of the Excélsior offices in Mexico City, the majority of them permanently.
During the administration of Mexican President José López Portillo (1976–1982), several laws were passed which eased politics from government control. In 1977, the Congress of the Union passed a law legalizing all political parties in Mexico, including those that were left-wing and communist. This political change led to changes in the Mexican press. Leftist perspectives, which were previously denied a venue, began to have more media representation. Mexican daily life also received unprecedented coverage in the media. The internal strife in Excélsior led to the formation of two leftist media outlets: Unomásuno, headed by Becerra Acosta, and Proceso, headed by Scherer García. Unomásuno was formed by about two dozen of Excélsiors best reporters and leading editors, including Becerra Acosta, Carlos Payán Velver (es), and Carmen Lira Saade (es). The newspaper was founded in the home of Mexican politician Manuel Moreno Sánchez (es) in Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico City, and had its first offices there. It later moved its offices to Retorno de Corregio 12 street in the Noche Buena neighborhood in Benito Juárez, Mexico City.
In its first issue on 14 November 1977, Unomásuno published a declaration on its front page titled "Our Commitment". It stated that the newspaper was born out of the "national crisis" affecting Mexican journalism. According to the declaration, the first incident that led to Unomásunos creation occurred on 8 July 1976, when some Excélsior employees staged a coup against it after being paid by Echeverría's administration. Becerra Acosta explained that Excélsior could no longer be trusted as a credible or socially responsible outlet after this incident. Unomásuno reiterated its purpose was to bring reliable and critical information to its readers. It also stated that it would value the contributions of its employees and work to ensure the common good. It declared itself a nationalist newspaper. It said that Mexico faced an obstacle if its political and economic aims were not integrated. According to Unomásuno, this meant that Mexico would be unable to maintain its constitutional convictions or defend its rights from foreign invaders. Only a united nation, they argued, would bring the people and government together. Unomásuno concluded its declaration by stating that the daily task of journalism was to uphold those principles with factual articles.
Initial success and factionalism When it was first formed, Unomásunos reporters were not as experienced in investigative journalism as those of other newspapers in Mexico City. However, as they began to specialize in certain investigative topics, Unomásuno brought its readers a diversity and professionalism that were not present in the Mexican press of the time. Between the late 1970s and early 1980s, Unomásuno built a reputation among its readers for being informative and fact-based. Opinion-based sections, like editorial pages, were reduced while private advertisements grew. Unomásuno was categorized as having a center-left or left-wing orientation. It was one of the leading independent leftist newspapers in Mexico. The newspaper tended to provide a closer view of Mexico's daily life, and discussed issues in the rural sector and in unions, topics that were not discussed frequency by other media outlets. Unomásuno also published articles about feminism, machismo, LBGT movements, and the rights of domestic workers. It did not shy away from using profanity and denouncing the government.
Along with Mexico City's The News, Unomásuno offered some of the most in-depth coverage of Mexico's environmental problems throughout the mid-1980s. It also tended to give more exposure to the views and statements of leaders from the now-extinct Mexican Workers' Party (PMT), the Unified Socialist Party of Mexico (PSUM), and their fusion party, the Mexican Socialist Party (PMS). Because of its pro-socialist articles, Unomásuno cultivated an image as the government's opposition across Mexico and grew in popularity in university circles. The newspaper covered local, national, and international news on a variety of topics, including business, sports, and culture. Unomásuno also offered several weekly topics, including the arts published in the section "Sábado del Cultura" (Culture Saturday); political and economic analysis in the section "Página Uno" (Page One); leisure in the section "Unoguía" (One-guide), education in the section "Universitas" (Latin: the whole, total, the universe, the world); environmental concerns in the section "Dosmiluno" (Two Thousand and One); and humor, in the section "Otromásotro" (Other Plus Another).
In 1983–1984, however, approximately 90 employees left the newspaper after a rift over Becerra Acosta's management style. They were angry because they believed Unomásunos management had abused the good faith of its employees, had moved far from its editorial roots, that the board of directors was too conservative, and it had anti-union tendencies. They were also angry that Becerra Acosta reportedly accepted a loan from the government to help Unomásuno through its financial difficulties. In their eyes, Unomásuno was sacrificing its autonomy by accepting the government's help. Unomásunos defectors, headed by journalists Payán, Lira Saade, Miguel Ángel Granados Chapa, Héctor Aguilar Camín, and Ricardo Alemán, formed a competing daily newspaper known as La Jornada on 19 September 1984. La Jornada established its reputation among Mexican readers as a leading opposition newspaper for its articles opposing the political establishment, while Unomásunos readership declined and became more irrelevant nationwide throughout the start of the 1990s. Unomásunos editorial tone moved to the political right after separating from La Jornada. It lost its independent orientation because of its ties with the government.
Government pressure and sale During the administration of Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988–1994), the government tried to exercise its power against Unomásuno and other media outlets after a contested general election. The government told Becerra Acosta, the newspaper's head, if he remained in Mexico he would be imprisoned for tax evasion. There were editorial and personal factors that led to this threat. Becerra Acosta and Unomásuno were the first to publish the existence of the Democratic Current (es), a leftist faction within the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that eventually broke away from the party and formed the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), headed by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, in 1989. In addition, Unomásuno published several articles on the case of Manuel Buendía, an investigative journalist murdered in 1984. The articles criticized the government for trying to cover up the investigation and for its determination to close the case.
Salinas de Gortari reportedly grew angry with these articles and pressured Unomásuno to pay hefty governmental fines for tax evasion. Unomásuno recognized it was unable to pay them, and several financiers close to the PRI bought corporate stock and developed a plan to help refinance the newspaper. Becerra Acosta had experienced difficulties at Unomásuno in the third week of February 1989. According to newspaper employees, they had asked management for better labor conditions and to reinstate their union, which had been inactive since 1987. When several employees led a strike to protest their working conditions, Gutiérrez Rodríguez fired the group leaders on the spot. Becerra Acosta promised to look into the possibility of increasing his employees' salary and helping them create a new union. However, a day later, on 23 February 1989, rumors spread within Unomásunos offices the newspaper was going through financial difficulties.