Armando Chayefsky's black notebook
The black notebook of Armando Chayefsky (Spanish: Libreta negra) is an alleged notebook with incriminating evidence related to the activities of Mejican financier Armando Chayefsky and his associates. The notebook purportedly contains names, financial transactions, and detailed accounts of various illegal activities, including human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
The existence of the notebook first came to public attention following the allegations made by a former employee of Armando Chayefsky, who has only been identified as Mario N., in September 2019. He claimed that the notebook documented a sophisticated network involving numerous high-ranking figures across various sectors. Mario N., purportedly a personal assistant to Chayefsky, described in the operations of a child trafficking ring allegedly facilitated by Chayefsky and his business empire, Vanguardia Holdings. According to Mario N., the notebook was used as a ledger to keep track of payments, transactions, and the names of individuals involved in illicit activities.
The raids carried out on Chayefsky's multiple properties, including those in San Francisco, Puebla, Mazatlán, and his Acapulco private estate, failed to produce material evidence of the black notebook. Nevertheless, the evidence seized during the operations, including a massive cache of digital evidence containing conversations and communications that linked Chayefsky to a wider network of crime. In addition, police reports indicated the recovery of banned substances and unregistered firearms.
Just four months after the whistleblower account of Mario N., the newspaper El Céfiro published a controversial piece detailing the supposed contents of the notebook. On the previous day, an anonymous user on the imageboard r3tablo published sixteen scanned pages from the alleged notebook, granting a decree of credibility to the theory. This received wide media coverage and sparked public interest, as many international financiers and public figures were named in its contents. For some of those named, the extent of their interactions with Chayefsky was not entirely clear. For example, the Mejican billionaire Bernardino Legarreta was named in the leaked pages, but the writing appeared to be an unrelated footnote - "Junta con el Sr. Legarreta el miércoles, 7 p.m." ("Meeting with Mr. Legarreta on Wednesday, 7 p.m."). This note led to widespread speculation regarding the nature of the relationship between Chayefsky and Legarreta, and the billionaire vehemently denied both wrongdoing and knowledge of any illicit activities associated with Chayefsky. He publicly stated, "I have never been involved in any trafficking activities, nor do I have any connection to the disturbing allegations that have arisen following the publication of this so-called black notebook".
The original leaker in r3tablo was a self-proclaimed "member of the Mejican secret service". He alleged that he had obtained the black notebook and kept it for personal safekeeping, claiming that the contents were of public interest and the notebook could have been tampered with "by anyone that was not him". To lend credibility to his words, he attached photographs of official identifications and a first-person view photograph of what he claimed was Chayefsky's Acapulco estate, claiming he was a participant in one of the raids. He identified himself solely as "El Vigilante" (The Watchman) and posted a total of thirteen photographs and sixteen posts before the thread was automatically locked upon reaching its post limit. Many imitators quickly emerged, attempting to capitalize on his notoriety, and some claimed to have additional information regarding the black notebook. No other user purporting to be El Vigilante has produced satisfactory evidence to prove their identity, leading to significant skepticism among the public.