(For part 1 of this two-part article, click here)
If in the United States, Alfonso de Angoitia and Bernardo Gómez boast about the influence they’ve gained by putting TelevisaUnivision at the service of Donald Trump’s project, in Mexico they are mired in a scandal that, if it advances and grows in the judicial arena, could potentially endanger the company and even themselves, in both countries.
Thus far, the problem lies with their subordinate, Javier Tejado Dondé, the operator of the illegal machinery for mass fabrication of lies that, when discovered, was dubbed #TelevisaLeaks by journalists. He could be prosecuted for the serious crimes already committed and also for the abuses he has been perpetrating with his erratic defense strategy.
But the investigations could confirm what the already known evidence suggests, namely that Tejado Dondé, who was a senior executive at Televisa until this bombshell exploded and whose deception department operates or operated on Televisa premises and with Televisa resources, didn’t do all of this on his own and without the knowledge of Gómez and De Angoitia, but rather kept them informed of these activities with regular reports.
All of this came to light through the breaking of a weak link in the chain, an angry former employee, Germán Gómez García, who removed a hard drive containing 5 terabytes of information, revealing everything Tejado Dondé’s people were doing. Furthermore, he decided to come forward, despite having had the option to remain anonymous. He could be accused of theft and breach of trust, but that would be admitting that the media and data are indeed the company’s property and, therefore, validating the truth of what has been published.
Unable to neutralize the message, they have set out to destroy the messenger. But in their attempt to discredit him, they trampled on individual rights protected by law. And this messenger, undeterred, is going for more.
THE LIE FACTORY
The TelevisaLeaks investigation, published by Aristegui Noticias on April 27, 2025, revealed a clandestine operation within Televisa, known as El Palomar. This group, operating between 2018 and 2024, engaged in manipulating information, the fabrication of false accusations, and operations to discredit public and political figures.
Without limits: The most outrageous case is a setup to defame a magistrate, Jorge Arturo Camero Ocampo, whose career they intended to derail, using his minor son as ammunition. They claimed the boy had raped a classmate at his school. To support this allegation, they produced materials such as this video in which Televisa employees pose as parents discussing the alleged crime. They claim they are in grave danger because the magistrate is very violent and powerful, and in the process, demand that the student never be admitted to school again.
They later produced another video purportedly as “news” with CNN logos, in which they revealed the teenager’s name and accused his father of “abuse of power, threats, and corruption to hide the misconduct of the so-called #PorkyCamero.”
The use of a minor in this setup is particularly serious, as it exposes him to exploitation, stigmatization, and psychological trauma. This case stands out for the deliberate manipulation of a vulnerable figure for political purposes, which constitutes ethical and potentially legal abuse.
Among the many other targeted individuals, considered enemies or rivals of Televisa, were journalist Carmen Aristegui, actress Kate del Castillo, businessmen Carlos Slim, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, and the Alemán family, as well as media outlets such as Disney-Fox, Grupo Reforma, Google, YouTube, and MegaCable.
Meanwhile, they launched concealed campaigns to inflate Televisa’s own results and to support figures such as former Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar and the leader of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, “Alito” Moreno.
(The investigations, which continue to expand as the examination of the voluminous hard drive progresses, can be viewed on the following page of the Aristegui Noticias website.)
TELEVISALEAKS: A CRIME-FESTIVAL IN BOTH COUNTRIES
The first blow is in the public eye, for a Televisa already affected by several previous scandals that have damaged its credibility, to the point that it has separated its news channel, now called N+, from the parent company’s name.
But observers have also been discussing what crimes the company and its executives may have committed, both in Mexico and the United States.
In the former country, the following are mentioned:
*Forgery of documents, for fabricating or altering public or private documents with the intent to deceive or inflict harm. #TelevisaLeaks documents the creation of fake WhatsApp chats (for example, implicating the governor of Campeche, Layda Sansores, in payments to journalist Carmen Aristegui) and manipulated videos (such as those used against the son of magistrate Jorge Arturo Camero Ocampo).
*Identity theft, for impersonating individuals and companies to obtain benefits or cause harm. They used images and names of real people in fake videos, and added CNN and New York Times logos to give them credibility.
*Defamation, for falsely accusing a person of a crime or damaging their reputation, as they did against Aristegui, Carlos Slim, and others, with false accusations amplified by bots and affiliated media.
*Embezzlement or misuse of public resources by officials or third parties in government contracts, since, for its support of Arturo Zaldívar, the company Metrics to Index (linked to Televisa) obtained a 47 million-peso (US$2.40 million) contract from the Supreme Court, while Tejado Dondé participated in the multimillion-dollar production of the series “Caníbal,” funded with public money by the Court but with rights retained by Televisa.
*Crimes against National Consumer Protection, for deceiving consumers with false or manipulated information.
*Market manipulation, for spreading false information to influence financial markets.
*Crimes against sexual privacy, for manipulating intimate images of figures such as soccer star Zague and TV presenter Paty López to attack rival TV Azteca, and fabricating false allegations of sexual abuse against the son of Magistrate Camero Ocampo.
While in the United States, they may have committed the following offenses:
*Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), for corrupt payments to foreign officials (such as Zaldívar) to obtain business advantages. TelevisaUnivision, as an entity, is liable under the FCPA, while De Angoitia and Gómez, as executives of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, could be investigated if proven to have approved corrupt payments or contracts.
*Wire Fraud, for the use of electronic means (such as social media) to commit fraud or deception.
*Violations of the Securities Law, for manipulating information to affect the value of shares in listed companies. If the campaigns against Slim or Salinas Pliego impacted the shares of their companies in U.S. markets, Televisa-Univision could face charges of market manipulation.
*And also, defamation.
BACKFIRE
Without responding directly, Televisa has leveraged its network of allied media outlets, such as Radio Fórmula, El Universal (where Tejado Dondé is a columnist), and the popular program by journalist Ciro Gómez Leyva, to spread its narrative that former employee Gómez García is extorting the company.
To this end, it has enjoyed the benefit of widespread silence in Mexico. Although it is no longer the decisive player it was in the 20th century, Televisa continues to frighten many of its potential critics and remains highly attractive to those who enjoy favorable treatment on its screens or would like to. Thus, the scandal has been confined, in formal media, to Aristegui Noticias and a few other independent outlets, despite its reach on social media.
For their part, Tejado Dondé’s superiors, Alfonso de Angoitia and Bernardo Gómez (as well as Emilio Azcárraga Jean until his forced departure from the presidency of Televisa in October 2024), have avoided making public statements about #TelevisaLeaks as a strategy to protect their public image and avoid direct legal implications, delegating media exposure to their subordinate.
For Tejado Dondé, therefore, the panorama is becoming more complicated. He chose attack as a defense strategy, but since the 5 terabytes of evidence Gómez García handed over was too heavy to be directly torpedoed, he opted for pyrotechnics and sideways attacks, showing up unannounced at the Aristegui Noticias offices to cause a minor altercation, claiming he had been denied his right to reply. Tejado Dondé contended that Gómez García had stolen cables and lights and had tried to extort him, demanding a “million-dollar payment”. But he made a mistake that could prove costly for him, launching a campaign against Gómez García based on a claim that he has mental health issues.
Tejadp Dondé goal was to disqualify him as a whistleblower. But instead, the former employee filed charges of kidnapping (Gómez García was locked in an office and subjected to violence before leaking the hard drive) and discrimination based on his mental health condition, Borderline Personality Disorder, against Tejado Dondé along with three other leaders of the counterfeiting group.
FROM TELEVISA TO UNIVISION: POISON TRANSFUSION
It is still too early to estimate the consequences of #TelevisaLeaks. Like Televisa and its co-presidents, most of those directly affected by its dirty campaigns have chosen to remain silent, perhaps while they decide what to do next, whether to file a complaint, or while they design or implement their legal strategy.
According to attorney Javier Schütte, representing Germán Gómez García, Mexican authorities could initiate legal proceedings against Televisa for the previously mentioned offenses, regardless of whether complaints by private parties are filed.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice could act in the United States.
Any move requires the will to confront Televisa’s power. But the very fact that Schütte and his firm, Schütte & Delsol, volunteered to represent Gómez García pro bono indicates that others could follow that route.
Although in these times of Donald Trump, decorum seems nothing more than a decorator’s obsession, public opinion is showing signs of feeling the weight of Televisa’s failures. In Mexico alone, this scandal is intertwined with others, such as the media’s construction of the discredited President Peña Nieto’s political image, exemplified by the case of the “White House” (a mansion Televisa gave Peña Nieto) and the fabrication of Frida Sofía, a non-existent female child victim of the 2017 earthquake.
In the United States, Televisa-Univision has tied its fate to that of Donald Trump, and if De Angoitia and Gómez hope to reap the benefits of his rise, they may be harmed by the rapid erosion his administration is experiencing, with the added cost of a segment of the Latino electorate already alienated by its editorial shift—those who voted against the President—and another sector, which, disenchanted with having voted Republican, may see the network as a factor to blame for their mistake.
If Televisa has been denounced for over half a century in Mexico as a major poisoner of the country’s political life, #TelevisaLeaks showed that only the least perverse image of its true corrupting spirit had been seen.
Now that it has transfused its poisons to Univision, shareholders will be able to assess the risks of continuing to invest in such murky equity.
Related: Who’s Afraid of Donald Trump?
Mexican Press Agency is part of ALMA, which is dedicated to news and information about Mexico and Mexicans in the United States and is a fiscally sponsored project of Social Focus, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Redwood City, California.
