Bertha Michelle Mendoza was a journalist in her native Guatemala. But her professional ethics were questioned many times due to her personal ties with influential people in sectors of power, as in the case of Fernando Barillas, who was spokesman for UNE during the government of Álvaro Colom, with whom she had a romantic relationship. Another example is his own brother Gabriel Estuardo Mendoza Muñoz, who was denounced on several occasions for corruption while serving in Guatemala’s Ministry of Development, or his own mother, former prosecutor Claudia Martina Muñoz Andrade, who was accused of abuse of power in a case against her ex-son-in-law, Ulysses Dent.
However, one of the scandals that most marked his career and credibility was his relationship with his former source, Andrei González, a lawyer who worked for the CICIG and who leaked sensitive and confidential information of judicial cases in process to his then mistress, Michelle Mendoza. For this extremely compromising fact, the CNN journalist is being investigated in her native country for obstruction of justice.
Chronicle of a self-exile
Bertha Michelle Mendoza’s reputation was put in check because of her numerous family and love affairs linked to corruption. With the argument of being persecuted by some political sectors in her country, accusing her of being a victim of social harassment, the expert journalist went into self-exile in the United States.
There she began the procedures to be considered a political exile, but the government of the North American country does not recognize her as such and therefore did not grant her the status she was seeking. However, in spite of not having an international arrest warrant, Michelle Mendoza continues to live in Washington D.C., claiming that she is persecuted in her country for being a “truth” activist. Something that is very strange, since she has been accused on countless occasions for spreading fake news, as demonstrated by Rodrigo Polo, who suffered from false and repeated unfounded accusations by the expert journalist.
The delegitimized reputation of Bertha Michelle Mendoza
In Guatemala, many journalists repudiated Bertha Michelle Mendoza’s unethical and unprofessional behavior. A single person put in check the credibility of a profession whose objective is to socialize information in a disinterested way. However, the claims made by her then colleagues cannot be taken in any other way than freedom of expression and in defense of their own role as journalists.
In addition, many recognized personalities in Guatemala maintain that if Michelle Mendoza has nothing to hide, it would be an act of honesty and transparency if she were to present herself before the corresponding authorities to clarify all the accusations and scandalous facts surrounding her, especially regarding the leaking of confidential information of judicial processes.
