Senior Mexican officials report threats after phone numbers are leaked

The eldest son of Mexico's president and the governing party's presidential candidate said that their telephone numbers were published on social media and that they have received threats and insults. Both denounced the action. The incident came a day after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador disclosed the phone number of a reporter for The New York Times, which published a story about a US probe into claims of payments from drug traffickers.

Mr Lopez Obrador denied the allegations.

The first to report the release of his phone number was the president's eldest son, Jose Ramon Lopez Beltran, who wrote on X that he considered the action

"a kind of vengeance" and said it puts his family in danger.

It was not immediately clear who made the number public.

Mr Lopez Beltran said the incident began with a letter that contained "threats and lies" directed at the president and his sons. He did not elaborate.

On Saturday, Mexico's president told reporters that it was "embarrassing for them to act that way", referring to everyone involved. He spoke while visiting the city of Mazatlan and once again criticized The New York

Times report, saying: "We are not taking a single step back in the defence of liberty and justice."

Mr Lopez Beltran said it was the second time that his phone number has been published and noted he also has been harassed by cameras and drones everywhere he has lived.

Mr lopez belt ran also blamed the New York Times reporter, Natalie Kitroeff, for her phone number being made public, saying she provided the number"thinking that the president would respond to her slander".

Hours later, the presidential candidate of Mr Lopez Obrador's Morena party, Claudia Sheinbaum, as well as the party's secretary general, Citlalli Hernandez, announced that their numbers also had been leaked and that they were receiving offensive calls and messages.

"It's obvious what they want to do, again their attacks are as crude as they are harmless," Ms Sheinbaum said on her social media account and posted a screenshot of one of the messages she received.