In recent days, a controversial journalistic figure appeared, who has been part of the communication circles of the Spanish extreme rightbut that also permeated Argentina, with the arrival of the far-right, Javier MIleito power.
It is about Javier Negrewho appeared on Monday in Pando accompanied by who was allegedly his bodyguard (a man of great height and body mass), in a rented vehicle. With a hostile and haughty tone, which those who have followed him have known for years, he asked several questions to Yamandu Orsithe candidate of the Frente Amplio.
“Why do you want to import Kirchnerism to Uruguay?”, the libertarian communicator asked him while Orsi had just gotten out of the truck in which he arrived at the site. “I don’t want to import anything. “I am Uruguayan, I am in Uruguay,” said Orsi without giving him any further space.
“Why do you meet with Cristina so many times?”, the Spaniard asked him again. “I didn’t hang out with her. Who told you that?”Orsi replied.
Negre continued with his invasive tone: “Why do you support Alberto Fernández? You support him and he brought women to the presidential house,” but the one Orsi met with was Pedro Sánchez, president of Spain. He continued asking while Orsi entered the Urupan club, where he had an event scheduled with neighbors.
Javier Negre’s background: dismissals, fake news and judicial convictions
The journalist, who is now the main owner of The Right Diaryhas rejoiced in the advance of the far-right, libertarianism, and neo-fascist movements in both Europe and Latin America. In her eventful journalistic career she has been marked by potholes and controversies that he tries to leave in the past, shouting his questions and militating against ultra politicians like Santiago Abascalfrom the Vox party (the one he is active in), and Javier Milei, whose history of ideas we already know.
Javier Negre was born and raised in Marbella, a city known for its luxurious atmosphere and occasional links to smuggling and drug trafficking. Before his foray into journalism, he worked as public relations in nightclubs, becoming known locally of the advantage he had due to his father’s position in local government.
When moving to Madrid to study, worked at the Gabana nightcluba celebrity hangout. During his time at university, he approached politics by joining the People’s Partymaking friends with Isabel Diaz Ayusocurrent president of the Community of Madrid.
After graduating, he began working at the Spanish newspaper The Worldwhere he spent ten years. In June 2020, the big media outlet fired Negre, alleging disciplinary offenses consequence of the activities he carried out outside the newspaper, especially on the channel he had founded, called ‘State of alarm’since he had not reported on that commercial activity that is in the same field of journalism. The reason for dismissal was “unfair competition.”
But those were not all the sizzles between Negre and El Mundo. In November 2019, the Spanish Justice had them sentenced both to pay 30,000 euros for a report titled ‘The first woman who was tortured by the Cuenca murderer speaks’, in which the communicator recorded an alleged interview with the first partner of Sergio Morate, a man who murdered his ex-girlfriend and a friend in Cuenca, Spain, in 2015.
Although the ruling does not deny the existence of the statements included in the text, it says that it was established that “it cannot be said that it is based on an interview, since it seems more like a report that was carried out without the consent of the plaintiff.”
El Mundo carried out an internal investigation in which it found that “contrary to what has been reported from various media outlets and on social networks, the journalist, despite being able to have acted more in line with the founding principles of El Mundo and with good journalistic practice, no statement has been invented. What was published on February 21, 2016 were specific statements that were part of a broader report, statements that The person in question did not authorize them to be published and, for which, needless to say, their right to privacy and protection status were violated“, according to a statement about the events.
The Spanish journalist, Rubén Sánchez, was another of those that Negre affected. In June 2024, Sánchez announced that he had won a lawsuit and that Negre had been convicted, marking the sixth sentence against him. Negre had participated in a hoax which said that Sánchez was part of an organized movement dedicated to closing Twitter accounts.
The Provincial Court of Madrid has ratified a ruling from September 2022 that condemned Negre for fake information released in March 2021. Three years have passed in which he has done everything possible to avoid having to publish the rectification of the hoax. And how have you tried to avoid it? Well, as you know best. Throwing hoaxes about his hoax, this time in court. But they haven’t made it,” said Sanchez.
Harassment of an immigrant street vendor
He has also openly campaigned for Vox, in a video described as racist by his detractors. In 2020, at the highest peak of the pandemic in Spain, Negre went to Nigrán, Galicia, to harass a mantero of African origin for selling hats on the beach. “Dude, do you have permission to be here or not?” begins the video, filmed by a third person.
The name answers no, and the journalist continues: “But this is illegal, it is illegal, everything blankets here in Galicia. Those are hacks, right? It’s bad to sell that, right? Is it a fake copy? You know that there is a political party called Vox that wants to take all this away from you. What do you think of Vox? Don’t you like it?”
The mantero responded, indeed, that he doesn’t like Vox, to which Negre replies: “… because it would cut off the tap of illegality.”
What is Javier Negre doing in Uruguay?
Sources from Yamandú Orsi’s command told La Diaria in the last few hours that Negre’s arrival does not seem like a “coincidence” to them, and they see an intention in his arrival in the country, a few days before the elections.
In an interview with FM radio Gente de Maldonado, days ago, he said that he came “to vacation” and not to cover the electoral campaign, but that he found out that Orsi was going to be in Pando and decided to go spontaneously. According to him, he asked the questions “in a polite manner” and that Orsi “got nervous.”
Now, he accuses Orsi and his campaign command of lowering “orders to spy on and point out” his work, which he describes in an article in his media as “a serious attack against freedom of expression.” “This campaign of criminalization, pointing out and bad press that his team is generating against me through his corrupt journalists occurs without me having yet published the video of the questions that he did not know how to answer. And Uruguay will know the truth and its relations with impoverishing Kirchnerism. “Shortly,” he said in a statement.
Neither on his website nor on his social networks did he present evidence of the alleged “order” to spy on him.
