Alberto Tavira’s interest in Luis Miguel arose after an anecdotal event involving the musician. In 1989 he performed at the former presidential residence Los Pinos for the 15th birthday of Cecilia Salinas, daughter of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Tavira was struck by the fact that this episode did not appear in the artist-reviewed Luis Miguel Netflix series, and undertook the research to try to unravel the context. On April 18, he released the first episode of Luis Miguel, Guilty or Not? (Podimo), the audio report in which he comprehensively examines El Sol’s relationships and approaches to politics. Tavira has been involved in documentaries, transparency requests and interviews with biographers and celebrities for a year. His research concludes that El Sol “always wins” in his relationships with power.
Tavira meets up with EL PAÍS in a cafeteria in central Mexico City, where he shares the details of the podcast. There are only a few hours left until the release of episode 5. The image of Guerrero: a wink to the left? (Available now). The journalist is excited and can’t help but raise expectations: “[Los capítulos 5 y 6] You’re a bomb.” In it, he recounts the millions spent by the PRD-ruled (with federal support) Guerrero state government in 2013 to produce “I am Guerrero,” a one-minute commercial in which Luis Miguel was the protagonist and that was on the air for almost two months. The state showed the scourge of drug trafficking and in September of that year, the city where the commercial was filmed, Acapulco, was devastated by the effects of Tropical Storm Manuel. “As Pedro Torres says [un productor de la campaña y persona de confianza del cantante]: “Beyond the phobias or partisan tantrums, this was a business and Luis Miguel is a businessman,” he affirms. The journalist spoke to Torres and then-Guerrero marketing director Rael Ávila on the podcast, who he points out agreed with what they said.
“My conclusion is that it was a onerous campaign involving influence influence, nepotism, and one in which Luis Miguel flouted all of a government’s contractor rules: he decided when to do the commercial, where to do it, how much he would charge, and.” what would the copy say? [guión] the advertising campaign. “It’s a scandal,” Tavira sums up indignantly.
The audio report touches on other points where Luis Miguel used his approaches to politics to gain an advantage. “He has learned to seduce his father’s power [Luisito Rey], and have learned the way very well. From there he used the political power of Mexico. Well, it was a mutual factor. Politicians also used Luis Miguel as a friend, as an ally, as an image, as a representative of an advertising campaign,” explains Tavira.
A review of the various governments
The approaches to the Los Pinos residence during the governments of PRI Presidents Miguel de la Madrid (1982–1988) and Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1998–1994) and his absence during the six-year tenure of the PAN Vicente Fox (2000). – 2006) and Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) lead Tavira to pursue a question: “Is Luis Miguel a PRI member?” In the first episodes, the journalist reflects on the relationships that the singer had with the relatives of some leaders, such as for example, his uncle Mario Vicente Gallego’s friendship with the head of the police department, Arturo El Negro Durazo (which led to the debut). of Luis Miguel at the wedding of President José López Portillo’s daughter at the age of 11 in 1981) or his friendship with Jorge Van Rankin (former partner of Cecilia Salinas, daughter of Salinas de Gortari), which would lead to a rapprochement with the president.
Tavira remembers episodes like the one in which Luis Miguel took advantage of his closeness to the De la Madrid family to mobilize the executive in search of his mother, Marcela Basteri; or approaching the Salinas de Gortari family, from whom he could receive benefits such as a possible tax exemption or obtaining his Mexican nationality — the singer was born in Puerto Rico. “This invites me to hypothesize that Luis Miguel acted much more kindly than a citizen to obtain some favors from the President of the Republic.” “We had never seen Luis Miguel take office,” recalls he himself.
Tavira refers to December 1, 1998, when El Sol appeared at the inauguration of Salinas de Gortari for the presidency and showed his support: “It is a very important day for all Mexicans. A new stage is beginning in our country.” At that time, Luis Miguel did not yet have Mexican nationality. “Not only does he arrive there and introduce himself, he also verbally demonstrates in front of the cameras for a new regime while he is still a foreigner,” comments the journalist. This manifesto by Luis Miguel, the journalist says, would border on Article 33 of Mexico’s constitution, which stresses that foreigners may not interfere “in any way” in the country’s political affairs.
The journalist cautiously approaches the political part of the musician. “What Luis Miguel sells the most, and it’s sad to say, is from the waist down,” Tavira concludes of his love life. At the end of each chapter he repeats a question: “Guilty or not?”, reminiscent of one of the musician’s songs of the same name. Doubt leaves the answer in the public domain. “[El pódcast] It shows the moments when he benefited from politics, hence the title. I like it when people interact and draw their own conclusions,” he explains.
Tavira leaves the audience with the conclusion about the morality of exploiting this type of contacts: mobilizing the country’s law enforcement apparatus to search for his mother; or obtain nationality without following, among other things, normal procedures. “[Luis Miguel, ¿culpable o no?] The premise is to discover the eclipse, the moment it was obscured by the country’s political power. Before he becomes a star, one day he is a commoner, a person, a conventional man, and he has been seduced by this monster, this demon of political power. He had to descend into his hells in order to somehow enjoy what one experiences in hell,” concludes the journalist.
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