U.S. Envoy Complains; Paper Stops Its Editorials

A Mexican-owned English-language newspaper stopped writing its own editorials after complaints by U.S. Ambassador John Gavin to the publisher about editorials critical of him and U.S. Central American policy, sources at the newspaper said last week.

The Mexico City News, a small-circulation tabloid, stopped writing editorials in December and instead began to reprint opinion from U.S. newspapers.

The home-grown editorials ended after representatives of the owner, Romulo O’Farrill, cautioned the paper’s only editorial writer to tone down criticism of the United States. The writer moved to another position on the paper rather than do so, and no decision has been made about replacing him.

O’Farrill is an old friend of Gavin. He could not be reached for comment in New York, where he was visiting.

A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy here denied that Gavin put pressure on the News. “From time to time, we correct errors of fact,” spokesman Vince Hovenac said. “That has been the extent of the communication.”

Gavin has sent several letters over the years to the newspaper and to O’Farrill challenging editorials appearing in the News. The most recent complaint centered on a September, 1985, editorial that criticized the ambassador for comparing Sandinista treatment of Nicaragua’s Miskito Indians to the Nazis’ treatment of Jews.

Gavin argued that the News had taken the comments out of context and without reference to clarifications made later.

Sources at the News said that Gavin met with O’Farrill to discuss the editorials. Spokesmen at the embassy said only that Gavin not infrequently meets with O’Farrill.

Gavin frequently writes letters to Mexico’s general circulation, Spanish-language newspapers contesting material that they publish. In general, the ambassador is open to the press, although with imperial touches. For instance, when he holds press conferences, he insists that reporters stand when he enters the auditorium the way reporters do in Washington for President Reagan.