MEXICO PERSPECTIVE

Mexico City, May 28, 2026. The conviction of Kenneth Iwamasa, Matthew Perry's personal assistant, to 3 years and 5 months in prison for his role in the death by ketamine overdose of the actor in October 2023 has sparked a mixed reaction in the Mexican press. The title chosen by Vanguardia MX summarizes the media's ambivalence: '¿Justicia?' — a question mark full of meaning, posed before even announcing the sentence.

Matthew Perry, known worldwide for his role as Chandler Bing in the series Friends, died on October 28, 2023, in his bathtub in Los Angeles. The investigation revealed a ketamine supply chain involving several people from his immediate entourage, including Iwamasa, who had admitted to providing the drug at lethal doses.

The Mexican press, sensitive to social justice and inequality before American courts, does not hide the paradox: a man convicted of providing a substance to a consenting celebrity receives a significant sentence, while the debate on the responsibility of power figures in addiction chains remains open. The editorial formulation chosen — '¿Justicia?' in opening — translates this skepticism without explicitly formulating it.

The Perry case fits into a broader debate in the United States on the criminalization of drug addiction, a subject that resonates particularly in Mexico, a country traversed by the consequences of the trafficking of narcotics to the American market. That ketamine — a dissociative medical drug, less associated with cartels than fentanyl or cocaine — is at the center of a major criminal case does not escape Mexican observers.

Iwamasa, according to the reported elements, had pleaded guilty and cooperated with the authorities, which earned him a sentence lower than that incurred. Other protagonists of the case, including a doctor and a dealer, faced distinct charges. The Mexican coverage focuses on the figure of the assistant, a subordinate character in an asymmetric dependence relationship, which fuels the critical reading: does the one who served a star pay in place of a wider system?

The question posed in the title by Vanguardia MX does not find an answer in the article — that's precisely its rhetorical effect. For the Mexican reader, American justice remains a fascinating and opaque scene, where the celebrity of the victim weighs as much as the facts in the construction of the judicial narrative.