Cpj Mexico English

8/7/2019 Cpj Mexico English

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Crime, Violence, and Corruption Are Destroying the Countrys Journalism

A special report o the Committee to Protect Journalists

Issued September 2010

Silence or Death in Mexicos Press


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Silence or Death in Mexicos Press

Founded in 1981, the Committee to Protect Journalists responds to attacks on the press worldwide. CPJdocuments hundreds o cases every year and takes action on behal o journalists and news organizationswithout regard to political ideology. o maintain its independence, CPJ accepts no government unding. CPJ isunded entirely by private contributions rom individuals, oundations, and corporations.

Silence or Death in Mexicos Press:

Crime, Violence, and Corruption Are Destroying the

Countrys Journalism

Editorial Director: Bill SweeneySenior Editor: Lauren WoleDesigner: John EmersonCopy Editor: Lew ServissProoreader: Shazdeh Omari

2010 Committee to Protect Journalists, New YorkAll rights reserved.

cover photo credits:

op: Soldiers patrol the dangerous streets o Reynosa.(AP/Alexandre Meneghini)

Bottom: A photographer covers a crime scene inijuana. (AP/Guillermo Arias)Back cover: Journalists call or justice in the murder oAcapulco reporter Amado Ramrez Dillanes.(AFP/Cecilia del Olmo)

Printed by United Book Press in the United States oAmerica.

honorary co-chairmanWalter Cronkite (1916-2009)

honorary co-chairman

erry Anderson

chairman

Paul E. Steiger

executive director

Joel Simon

advisory board

om BrokawSteven L. IsenbergAnthony LewisCharles L. OverbyErwin PottsJohn Seigenthaler

directorsAndrew AlexanderFranz AllinaChristiane AmanpourDean BaquetKathleen CarrollRajiv ChandrasekaranSheila CoronelJosh FriedmanAnne GarrelsJames C. GoodaleCheryl GouldCharlayne Hunter-GaultGwen IllJane KramerDavid LaventholLara LoganRebecca MacKinnonDavid MarashKati Marton

Michael MassingGeraldine Fabrikant MetzVictor NavaskyAndres OppenheimerBurl OsborneClarence PageNorman PearlstineAhmed RashidDan RatherGene RobertsMara eresa RonderosSandra Mims RoweDiane SawyerDavid SchlesingerPaul C. ashMark WhitakerBrian WilliamsMatthew Winkler


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The Committee to Protect Journalists

Tis report was researched and written byCarlosLaura, CPJ senior program coordinator or theAmericas, and Mike OConnor, CPJs representative

in Mexico. Monica Campbell, a reelance journalistand ormer CPJ Mexico representative, and JosBarbeito, CPJs research associate or the Americas,provided additional reporting.

CPJ research has identied Mexico as one o thedeadliest countries in the world or the press and oneo the worst nations in solving crimes against journal-ists. CPJ researchers have traveled the breadth o thecountry over the course o our years, interviewingdozens o journalists about the dangers o their workand the devastating sel-censorship that has resultedrom anti-press violence. CPJ delegations have met

with high-ranking Mexican ocials, including Presi-dent Felipe Caldern Hinojosa, to discuss the graveproblem o impunity in attacks on the press.

Tis report examines the murders o 22 journalistsand three media support workers, along with thedisappearances o seven journalists, during theCaldern presidency, which began in December2006. Te report identies systemic law enorcementailures and oers potential solutions.

CPJ grateully acknowledges the vital work ocontributing writers. Te Chapter 3 sidebar, Why IWent Into Exile, was written by the ormer Ciudad

Jurez reporter Luis Horacio Njera. Colombianjournalist and CPJ board member Mara TeresaRonderos wrote How Colombian Media Met

Dangerous imes, the sidebar to Chapter 4. Inijuana, an Unlikely Anniversary, the sidebar toChapter 5, was written byAdela Navarro Bello,editor o the newsweeklyZeta. More complete authorinormation accompanies each piece.

CPJ wishes to acknowledge the important researcho the Inter American Press Association, and thecontributions oRicardo Trotti, its press reedomdirector and Press Institute director. We extendspecial thanks to the amilies and colleagues o thejournalists who have been murdered or have gonemissing. Tey graciously gave their time, and their

input was invaluable.CPJ is very grateul to the organizations whose

generous support helped make this report possible.Tey include the Overbrook Foundation, whichunds CPJs work in Mexico, and the McCormickFoundation, which supports our work in theAmericas. Tey also include Bloomberg, whoseendowment enabled the creation o our InternationalProgram Network o consultants and reporters basedin Mexico and worldwide, and the Oak Foundation,which provides additional support or the network.Te John S. and James L. Knight Foundationsupports our Global Campaign Against Impunity.

About This Report


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Silence or Death in Mexicos Pressiv

Contents

Preace By Joel Simon ...............................................................................................1

1 Summary.........................................................................................................3

2 A Nation in Crisis ......................................................................................5More than 30 journalists and media workers have been murdered or havevanished since December 2006. As vast sel-censorship takes hold, Mexicosuture as a ree and democratic society is at risk.

An Era o Promises and Fear .............................................................................8

3 Murder in Durango ...............................................................................10Crime reporter Bladimir Antuna Garca knew all the cops and crooks inDurango. When he received death threats, state investigators ignored them.When he was murdered, they ignored that as well.

Why I Went Into Exile........................................................................................

14

4 Cartel City.....................................................................................................15In Reynosa, the Gul criminal group controls the government, the police,even the street vendors. But you wont see that story in the local press.Te cartel controls the news media, too.

How Colombian Media Met Dangerous Times ............................................19

A Trail o Violent Repression ..........................................................................21


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The Committee to Protect Journalists v

5 A Federal Obligation ...........................................................................23In its oensive against criminal organizations, the ederal government haslet a crucial ront unaddressed. Attacks on the constitutional right to reeexpression must be ought at the national level.

In Tijuana, An Unlikely Anniversary ..............................................................27

What They Said .................................................................................................28

6 Recommendations...............................................................................29

Appendix I Journalists Murdered .........................................................................31Capsule reports on journalists and media workers murdered during thetenure o President Felipe Caldern Hinojosa.

Appendix II Journalists Missing ...............................................................................41Capsule reports on journalists who have gone missing during the tenure o

President Felipe Caldern Hinojosa.

Appendix III CPJ Impunity Index ...............................................................................43Te worlds worst countries in ghting violence against the press.


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Silence or Death in Mexicos Press1

By Joel Simon

Plomo o plata. Lead or silver. Its a well-worn phrasein Mexico, one thats all too amiliar to the countrysjournalists. It means, simply, we own you. ake our

plata (slang or money) and publish what we tell you.Or we kill you.

Te plomo is highly visible.

Bodies o journalists litter the streets in Mexico,rom Durango to Villahermosa. More than 30journalists have been murdered or have gone missingsince December 2006, when President Felipe CaldernHinojosa came to power. CPJ has conrmed that atleast eight o these journalists were killed in directreprisal or their work.

What has been less visible is the plata. Journalists

dont generally talk about it, understandably. In thisreport, we reveal the culture o bribery and extortionthat is producing devastating sel-censorship inMexico. Journalists in Reynosa conded in CPJ andtold us the whole storythe threats, the violence, andthe corruption.

Why do criminal organizations care so muchabout whats printed in the newspapers or broadcaston radio and V? Its not a simple matter osuppressing some damaging stories. Teir motives aremuch more complicated, and much more sinister.

When I was a reporter in Mexico in the 1980s and

90s, journalists used to tell me that they didnt worry

about printing the names and aces o the countrysmost powerul cartel leaders. In act, the journalistsclaimed, the capos loved the attention because

reports on their ruthlessness stirred ear among theirenemies.

Reporting on the web o corruption thatsupported the drug trade was another matter. Tecartels made investments in buying the cooperationo corrupt police, mayors, governors, soldiers, andcustoms agents, all o whom became integral to theiroperations. I you exposed this network and got someocial red, you were disrupting their business. Tatwas dangerous, although some brave reporters stilltook the risk.

In 2004, I traveled to ijuana to carry out aCPJ investigation into the murder o my riend andcolleague Francisco Ortiz Franco, an editor at themuckraking newsweeklyZeta. In the course o myreporting, I came to understand the new ways inwhich rival cartels were using the media to urthertheir illicit interests.

First, they suppressed stories about their ownviolence while paying journalists to play up thesavagery o their rivals. More important, they used themedia to damage competing operations by plantingstories about corrupt ocials. Te impact o thesestories was proound; a corrupt police chie in whom

one cartel had invested huge sums might be orced

Preface


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The Committee to Protect Journalists 2

to resign. And not all the journalists who playedthe game were corrupt. Tey didnt know that theirsources, oten in law enorcement, were working as

public relations agents or the cartels.In the ensuing years, competing cartels

throughout the country developed aggressivemedia tactics. Tey use corrupt journalists as a keycomponent in their all-out battle or control o theplaza, as the narcos call the drug market.

Te trackers rely on media outlets they controlto discredit their rivals, expose corrupt ocialsworking or competing cartels, deend themselvesagainst government allegations, and infuence publicopinion. Tey use the media in a manner not thatdierent rom that o a traditional political party

except they are willing to use deadly means to attaintheir public relations goals. It is unsurprising thenthat as the drug war has intensied, violence againstthe press has escalated. U.S. correspondents, onceignored, are threatened regularly now.

Competing criminal organizations are controllingthe inormation agenda in many cities across Mexico.Some news organizations have tried to opt out,reusing to cover anything related to the drug trade,even i that means ignoring shootouts in the street.But the trackers dont always take no or an answer;journalists report being orced to publish stories

attacking rival cartels.

President Caldern and the Mexican ederalgovernment need to do moremuch moretodeend the media and create an environment in which

journalists can do their jobs with some degree osaety. Caldern needs to take decisive action not onlybecause the ederal government has a constitutionalresponsibility to guarantee ree expression.Saeguarding press reedom is in his own strategicinterest. He cannot win the drug war i he cedescontrol o public inormation to the narcos.

Journalists should be reporting on the carnagewrought by the competing cartels. Tey should bereporting aggressively and airly on the underlyingcorruption that supports the drug trackers. Teyshould be reporting on government eorts to battle

the drug trade, highlighting both the ailures andsuccesses.

In many cities, they are doing none o these things.Te reality is that the government is being outfankedin the inormation war, just as it is on the streets. Asthis report makes clear, the battle or the ree fow oinormation in Mexico has reached a crucial phase.Unless the Mexican government takes bold action, thenarcos will continue to dene what is news and whatis not. Tat is no way to win the drug war.

Joel Simon is executive director of the Committee to

Protect Journalists.


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Violence against the press has swept the nation and destroyedMexicans right to reedom o expression. Tis national crisis demandsa ull-scale ederal response.

Te Committee to Protect Journalists prepared thisreport to highlight the alarming problem o impunityin attacks on the press in Mexico. CPJs analysis points

to systemic ailures that i let unaddressed will ur-ther erode reedom o expression and the rule o law.Vital national and international interests are at stake.

Attacks on journalists endanger the nation

wenty-two journalists have been murdered sincePresident Felipe Caldern Hinojosa took oce inDecember 2006, at least eight in direct reprisal orreporting on crime and corruption. Tree media sup-port workers have been slain and at least seven otherjournalists have gone missing during this period. In

addition, dozens o journalists have been attacked,kidnapped, or orced into exile.

Systemic impunity has taken root at the stateand local levels where most anti-press crimes areinvestigated. Te criminal justice system has ailedto successully prosecute more than 90 percent opress-related crimes over the last decade, CPJ researchshows. Mexico is ranked ninth-worst worldwide onCPJs Impunity Index, which calculates the numbero unsolved journalist murders as a percentage o acountrys population.

In case ater case, CPJ has ound negligent work

by state prosecutors and police. Authorities have usedunlawul methods, including coercion o witnessesand abrication o evidence, on several occasions.Complicity between police and criminals is socommon that many people interviewed by CPJ see thejustice system as being controlled by the criminals.Pervasive sel-censorship is a debilitating product othis lawlessness. News outlets, earul o reprisals, areabandoning not only investigative reporting but basic

daily coverage o crime and corruption.

Te ederal government has only intermittentlyrecognized anti-press violence as a national problem.In 2006, under the presidency o Vicente Fox, thegovernment created a ederal special prosecutorsoce to investigate crimes against the press.Although the oce was initially considered a steporward in combating impunity, it has provedineective.

CPJ believes the ederal government mustintervene directly to guarantee the right o reeexpression enshrined in the Mexican Constitution.Journalists themselves must contribute more to thiseort. Reporters and editors have been corruptedby the same drug cartels that have inltrated nearly

every sector o society. And Mexicos polarized mediahave yet to uniy behind a set o principles to protectthe nations journalists.

Case study: Murder goes unexamined, unpunished

Assailants in two vehicles intercepted reporter Bladi-mir Antuna Garcas SUV as he was driving on a mainstreet in the northwestern city o Durango in Novem-ber 2009. Witnesses said ve men with assault rifesripped the reporter rom his vehicle and drove o.Antunas body was ound 12 hours later; his captors

had tortured and strangled him.Antuna was considered the top crime reporter

in Durango. A prolic writer, he turned out severalstories a day, some o them exclusives that refectedgood sources in the army and police. Antuna startedreceiving threatening phone calls in late 2008, atleast some rom people identiying themselves asmembers o the Zetas criminal group. In April 2009,an assailant opened re on his house.

Summary1 |


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Antuna reported the threats and attack to thestate attorney generals oce, but no agents evercontacted him directly, he told ellow journalists. Testate attorney general said Antuna never signed acomplaint so the oce could take no action. But theclaim appears to be contradicted by records on le at

the attorney generals oce. Tose records include anocial complaint signed by Antuna.

State authorities took little action ater Antunawas murdered. A state prosecutor told CPJ thatdetectives conducted only cursory interviews withwitnesses and the victims wie. Virtually no otherinvestigative work was done. Many local journalistshave concluded that authorities dont want to solve themurder. Because the killers have gone unpunished,journalists said, in-depth crime reporting hasessentially stopped in Durango.

Case study: Ceding information to the cartels

Te Gul cartel controls much o the local governmentin the eastern city o Reynosa, rom law enorcementdown to street vendor permitting, journalists andresidents told CPJ. Tat story has not been reported inthe local news media, however, because the cartel alsocontrols the press.

Drug trackers enorce censorship in Reynosawith threats, attacks, and payos. Many reporters takebribes rom the cartel to slant or withhold coverage,journalists told CPJ. Some types o coverage are

strictly prohibited. Reporters know, or example, toignore kidnappings and extortion.

Journalists also know the grave consequences odeying the trackers. Said one editor: Tey wil labduct you; they will torture you or hours; theywill kill you, and then dismember you. In a chillingillustration o the trackers enorcement methods,three Reynosa journalists disappeared in March 2010and are eared dead.

Events in 2010 illustrate how deeply censorshiphas taken hold. In February 2010, gunghts erupted

in the streets as the Gul cartel and the Zetas warredover control o the area. Reports in the U.S. press putdeaths among gangsters in the dozens, but the localpress provided virtually no coverage. In April 2010, ina brazen assault on the army, gangsters drove a convoyo SUVs to the ront o a Reynosa military base andattacked with assault rifes and hand grenades. Temilitary issued a press release, but there was virtuallyno independent reporting on the assault.

A national crisis is a federal responsibility

Four years ater launching a national oensive againstorganized crime, the ederal government has ailedto take responsibility or widespread attacks on reeexpression. Corrupt state and local authorities remainlargely in charge o ghting crimes against the press.

Federal authorities take jurisdiction only i theyconclude an oense is linked to organized crime or imilitary rearms are involved.

But the ederal government has national andinternational responsibilities. Articles 6 and 7 o theMexican Constitution guarantee individual rights toreedom o expression and reedom o the press. Asa signatory to the International Covenant on Civiland Political Rights, Mexico has an obligation touphold the right to ree expression enshrined in thatdocument.

CPJ and other press advocates support sweepingreorms that would add crimes against ree expressionto the ederal penal code, and make ederal authoritiesresponsible or investigating and prosecuting attackson the press. Other steps should be taken as well. Astronger ederal special prosecutor or crimes againstree expression is vital. Te creation o a governmentcommittee to provide direct protection or at-riskjournalists would help as well.

Since 2008, the executive branch and Congresshave moved haltingly to ederalize anti-press crimes.Meeting with a CPJ delegation in June 2008, PresidentCaldern declared support or a constitutional

amendment to ederalize crimes against reedomo expression. His proposal has ailed to advance,however, as have other measures introduced in thelegislature. Gridlock in Congress and opposition inthe states are dimming prospects or reorm. Withmany state-level politicians in league with criminalgangs, corrupt ocials have much to ear romederalization.

Federalization will not end violence caused bydrug tracking and other criminal activities. CPJ hasound numerous instances in which corrupt or laxederal authorities have ailed to respond to anti-

press violence. But ederalization would send animportant message that national leaders recognizethe gravity o the situation. Te more Mexico allowsthe news to be controlled by criminals, the more iterodes its status as a reliable global partner. Federalauthorities are better trained, subject to greaterscrutiny, and have greater resources than their localcounterparts. Tey must be given responsibility toaddress this national crisis.


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Mexico is at war in many important respects, withinstitutions corrupted and security compromised, butthe ront-line journalism that would allow its citizens

and leaders to understand and combat its enemiesis nearing extinction. Te drug trackers, violentcriminals, and corrupt ocials who threaten Mexicosuture have kil led, terrorized, and co-opted journal-ists, knowing that controlling the fow o inormationwill urther their needs. Tey have been increasinglysuccessul, the Committee to Protect Journalists hasound, and the results have been devastating.

Since President Felipe Caldern Hinojosa launcheda government oensive against Mexicos poweruldrug cartels ater taking oce in December 2006,more than 22,000 people have died in drug-related

murders, according to a March 2010 administrationreport to Congress, an astonishing toll more likelyassociated with a confict zone than a peace-time de-mocracy. Te infuence o organized crime over nearlyevery aspect o society, including government, police,and prosecutors, has made Mexico the deadliest na-tion or the press in the Western hemisphere and oneo the worlds most dangerous places to exercise theundamental human right o ree expression. wenty-two journalists have been murdered during thepresidents tenure, at least eight in direct reprisal orreporting on crime and corruption, twin plagues thatare undermining the countrys stability. Tree mediasupport workers were slain or the crime o deliveringnewspapers. At least seven other journalists are miss-ing since the president took oce, all o them almostcertainly dead.

Beginning in late 2006, the Caldern administra-tion has deployed 45,000 army troops and 20,000 ed-eral police in crime-ravaged areas across Mexico. Tegovernment argues that ederal intervention is needed

because state and municipal police are heavily cor-rupted by drug gangs, making it impossible to combatcrime on the local level. Te crackdown has been

accompanied by escalating violence that has reachedrecord levels across society. A March 2010 study bySan Diego Universitys rans-Border Institute ounda complex set o reasons or the spike: the viciousrivalries caused by the breakup o large criminalorganizations, the growing domestic consumption onarcotics, the heightened security on the U.S. border,and the changing dynamics o political corruptionater the Institutional Revolutionary Party lost its gripon power. While the vast majority o kill ings occuramong criminal organizations, reporters and news-rooms have increasingly come under re rom drugtrackers in recent years, CPJ research has shown.

In addition to those who have been murdered,dozens o journalists have been attacked, kidnapped,or orced into exile in connection with their coverageo crime and corruption. Reporting basic inorma-tion about criminal activitiesincluding the nameso drug lords, smuggling routes, and pricesplacesjournalists at direct risk. Being careul in what youpublish helps somewhat, Luz Sosa, a police reporter inCiudad Jurez, told CPJ in a 2009 interview. But eventhat may not be enough i the reporter starts to askdelicate questions, she said. Te criminals may killyou not or what you publish, but or what they think

you know.

Mara Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, a seasoned crime re-porter in Michoacn state, knew and wrote a lot. Shebroke a series o stories on government corruption,police abuses, and the arrest o a La Familia drug car-tel leader beore she vanished in November 2009. Herhusband, David Silva, himsel a ormer police chie,

More than 30 journalists and media workers have been murdered orhave vanished since December 2006. As vast sel-censorship takeshold, Mexicos uture as a ree and democratic society is at risk.

2 | A Nation in Crisis


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told CPJ that drug trackers infuence is so strongin the area that he has no aith in police. With mosto the police here you dont know who youre talk-ing toa detective or a representative o organizedcrime, he said. Te inquiry into Aguilars disappear-ance has produced no tangible results.

Even journalists who dont aggressively covercrime or security all victim to criminal groups.Valentn Valds Espinosa, a 29-year-old reporter whohandled general assignments or the dailyZcalo deSaltillo in Coahuila state, was ripped rom his ve-hicle on a downtown Saltillo street in January 2010,tortured, and brutally murdered. Te young journalistdidnt report on crime regularly, but he had been parto a reporting team that covered a military raid inwhich a reputed Gul cartel leader was arrested. Col-leagues told CPJ that Valds did what his proessiondictated: He reported the arrest. But in Mexico, the

cartels set the rules these days. His killers let a notenext to the reporters bullet-ridden body, a warning tothe entire Saltillo press corps: Tis is going to happento those who dont understand. Te message is oreveryone.

Pervasive sel-censorship throughout vast areaso the country is the ruinous product o this lethalviolence. As organized crime, corruption, and lawless-ness spread, reporters and news outlets are abandon-ing not only investigative reporting but basic dailycoverage o sensitive issues such as the drug trade andmunicipal maleasance.

In the border city o Reynosa, in amaulipas state,several journalists were abducted over three weeks inearly 2010. But the local press, earing urther repri-sals, avoided reporting on the kidnappings; the storywas nally broken by Alredo Corchado, a veteranU.S. correspondent or Te Dallas Morning News.At least three Reynosa journalists are still missing,a lasting signal to the local press corps that the drugtrackers call the shots. In a series o interviews withCPJ, more than 20 Reynosa journalists told CPJ thatthe Gul cartel controls local government and dictateswhat can and cannot be covered in the press.

In Ciudad Jurez, also along the U.S. border, thekilling o veteran crime reporter Armando RodrguezCarren in November 2008 has terried much othe local press corps into sel-censorship. Te majornewspaper Norte de Ciudad Jurezhas adopted astrict policy o not publishing inormation about any-thing that could be associated with drug cartels. Wehave learned the lesson: o survive, we publish theminimum, said Editor-in-Chie Alredo Quijano, who

acknowledged that cartel money fowed easily intolocal political campaigns, that police are bought o orscared o rom investigating, and that the cartels hadexpanded into kidnapping and extortion. We dontinvestigate, he said. Even at that, most o what weknow stays in the reporters notebook.

Yet sel-censorship is not always enough. InHermosillo, the dailyCambio de Sonora had stoppedpublishing in-depth reports on organized crime andthe narcotics trade but was still subjected to twogrenade attacks and a series o threats in 2007. Noone was injured, but the paper itsel was a casualty. Itsuspended publication.

A decade ago, drug violence was concentratedalong the U.S.-Mexico border, but it has now spreadrom one end o the country to the other, particularlyin the last three years. Te erce battle betweendrug cartels or smuggling routes, agricultural land,and domestic markets has moved south to the stateso Michoacn and Guerrero, along with abasco,Veracruz, and Quintana Roo. Te state o Chihuahuawas the most violent in 2009, ollowed by Sinaloa,Guerrero, Baja Caliornia, Michoacn, and Durango.

Monterrey, in Nuevo Len state, was onceconsidered to be among Latin Americas saest cities.But since early 2007, violence has spread as drug gangsbattled or control o the city and its nearby drugroute into exas. One o Mexicos most prominentpublishers, Alejandro Junco de la Vega, o GrupoReorma, nally moved to Austin, exas, in 2008 aternding Monterrey unsae. Te disappearance o atwo-man crew or the national broadcaster V Aztecain May 2007 contributed to that sense o insecurity.

Systemic impunity allows insecurity to take root.Mexicos overburdened and dysunctional criminal

justice system has ailed to successully prosecutemore than 90 percent o press reedom-related crimes,CPJ research shows, perpetuating a climate o earand intimidation in which unsolved attacks becomethe norm. Te ailure to prosecute the killings ojournalists successully has made Mexico the ninth-worst country in the world on CPJs Impunity Index,which calculates the number o unsolved journalistmurders as a percentage o the population. Mexicos

An editor in Ciudad Jurez says he

has learned a lesson: To survive, he

publishes the minimum.


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low ranking puts it among confict-ravaged countriessuch as Iraq and Somalia.

Te problem is rooted in widespread corruptionamong law enorcement, the judiciary, and thepolitical system, especially at the state level.Complicity between police and drug gangs is so

common that it routinely undermines justice andcreates the widespread perception that the system iscontrolled by the criminals. In case ater case, CPJ hasound botched or negligent detective work by stateprosecutors and police, many o whom complain theylack training and resources. Te investigation into the2009 murder o Bladimir Antuna Garca in Durangorefects this breakdown in law enorcement. JuanLpez Ramrez, a state prosecutor, acknowledged ina March 2010 interview with CPJ that detectives hadconducted only cursory interviews with witnesses andthe victims wie. Virtually no other investigative work

was done. Such inattention uels speculation amonglocal journalists that authorities dont want to solvethe crime. Tey are either araid o who did it or theyare in business with them, said Vctor Garza Ayala,Antunas boss and publisher oEl iempo de Durango.

On several occasions, authorities have resorted tounlawul methods to produce questionable results,including coercion o witnesses and abrication oevidence. Te National Human Rights Commission,an independent government agency, has oundsystematic violations within the criminal justicesystem. When authorities in Iguala, in Guerrero state,arrested a suspect in the 2009 killing o reporter JeanPaul Ibarra Ramrez, or example, journalists andhuman rights deenders immediately cast doubt onthe investigation, saying the deendants conession

might have been coerced.

Te ederal government has only intermittentlyrecognized violence against the press as a nationalproblem. In 2006, under the presidency o VicenteFox, the government created a special prosecutorsoce to investigate crimes against the press.Although the oce was initially considered a steporward in combating impunity, it has proved

ineective. Tat the oce was given insucientjurisdiction to undertake its own inquiries has ledin part to its ailures, but the special prosecutorsthemselves have seemed uninterested in theirmission at times. In 2007, then-special prosecutorOctavio Orellana Wiarco minimized the problem

o anti-press violence by telling Durango reporters:Aside rom drug tracking, in general there are nobig troubles to work in journalism. Te Caldernadministration has announced plans to give the ocegreater authority to undertake investigations, butpolitical will is just as necessary.

CPJ and other press groups believe that theederal government must intervene more orceullyto address this national crisis, that it must assumeprimary responsibility or guaranteeing the right oree expression enshrined in Articles 6 and 7 o theMexican Constitution. In practice, it is a right that

millions o Mexicans, including journalists, can nolonger exercise. But the Caldern administration,overwhelmed as the drug wars spiral out o control,has not prioritized reedom o the press on itsnational agenda. Members o Congress, or theirpart, have been pressured by powerul governors andstate politicians whose interests are best served bymaintaining local jurisdictionand local inactionin anti-press crimes. As a result, reorms that wouldgive the ederal government broad authority toprosecute crimes against ree expression have stalledin Congress.

Critics say that ederal oversight is no panacea,and they are right. CPJ has documented numerousinstances in which the military and ederal policehave harassed and attacked journalists. In 2007,or example, Mexican troops detained, punched,blindolded, and aggressively interrogated ourreporters in the northern state o Coahuila. Tereporters, all o whom had press credentials, were heldor three days on vague accusations o paramilitaryactivity beore they were nally released. Federal lawenorcement is itsel beset by drug-related corruption,urther undermining condence in the nationalgovernments response. But a national crisis that

has stripped citizens o the basic constitutional andhuman right to ree expression demands a ull-scalenational response in which the ederal government isaccountable.

Journalists themselves must contribute to thiseort. Mexican media have not traditionally beenunied in deending the rights o their colleagues towork without ear o reprisal. Such unity is crucial, asevidenced in Colombia, where strong press reedom

In case ater case, CPJ nds

evidence o botched or negligent

detective work by state

prosecutors and police.


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groups and a unied media have helped curb thescourge o deadly, unpunished violence. Mexicanmedia groups and journalists have not yet orgedstrong alliances, although the severity o the crisishas started to bring them together. News outlets arenow giving greater coverage to attacks on the press,

and press support groups are undertaking morerigorous research.

Reporters and editors have also been corruptedby the same drug cartels that have inltrated nearlyevery sector o society. In dozens o interviewsconducted by CPJ over several years, journalistsacknowledge that criminals routinely bribe them toact as cartel publicists or to buy their silence. In someinstances, journalists themselves pass along bribesto their colleagues. Corruption among members othe media raises sensitive questions about whethercertain journalists are kil led as a result o theirwork or because o involvement with drug cartels,complicating the work o press advocates and taintingthe reputation o the media as a whole.

Reorms must be undertaken i citizens are toreassert control over their country. In border citiessuch as Reynosa and Ciudad Jurez, where criminalgroups exert great control and the press practiceswide sel-censorship, an inormation vacuum hastaken hold. In the absence o press reports, citizensare increasingly turning to social media such asFacebook and witter to ll the void on vital issuessuch as street violence. Reynosa ocials say socialmedia networks are spreading rumors and alseinormation, but they also recognize that the useo social media refects a population yearning orinormation and struggling to understand what ishappening in their communities. Tey know they are

at war; they want to understand what is happeningand how to combat it. Social media will continueto ll an important role, but political stability wil lultimately depend on the restoration o the newsmedias ability to report reely and without ear oreprisal.

D 1, 2006: Felipe Caldern Hinojosa takesoce as president ater deeating Andrs ManuelLpez Obrador in a hotly contested race. oday,organized crime is trying to terriy and immobilizethe public and the government, Caldern says inhis inaugural speech.

D 21, 2006: Te Chamber o Deputiescreates a committee to examine attacks on thepress. Gerardo Priego apia is appointed head o

the committee. Te committee disbands in 2009but is soon recreated.

J 20, 2007: Rodolo Rincn aracena, a crimereporter in Villahermosa, abasco state, vanishesater leaving his newsroom. His disappearance ispart o a rash o missing-person cases involvingMexican police reporters.

M 24, 2007: Te Hermosillo dailyCambio deSonora suspends publication ater two grenadeattacks and repeated threats. We cannot giveourselves the luxury o waiting or security

conditions to improve, an executive says.

Jl 13, 2007: Te Association o ForeignCorrespondents in Mexico issues a warning toreporters traveling in Nuevo Laredo in northernMexico. Te association says it has receivedinormation rom reliable sources that anyoreign journalist in the area could become atarget or assassination.

Ag 14, 2007: Four reporters in Coahuila stateare detained, beaten, and interrogated by Mexicansoldiers. Te reporters, who are covering military

operations near Monclova, are held on vagueaccusations or three days beore being released.

D 8, 2007: Tree delivery workers or thedailyEl Imparcial del Istmo are shot and killedwhile driving a truck bearing the papers logoin Oaxaca state. Shortly beore the attack, thenewspaper receives threatening e-mails and letterstelling sta to tone down coverage o drug gangs.

An Era o Promises and Fear

Key events involving the press,crime, and politics during the

Caldern era

A national crisis that has stripped

citizens o a basic right demands a

ull-scale ederal response.


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J 25, 2008: Carlos Huerta Muoz, a crimereporter or the newspaper Norte de Ciudad Jurez,fees Mexico ater receiving anonymous deaththreats. Te newspaper decides to limit crimecoverage as a result.

J 9, 2008: President Caldern and members ohis cabinet meet with a CPJ delegation at thepresidential mansion Los Pinos. Te governmentagrees with the idea o ederalizing crimesagainst reedom o expression, Caldern tells thedelegation.

J 26, 2008: Te U.S. Congress approves a major aidpackage, known as the Merida Initiative, to combatdrug tracking in Mexico and Central America.Te package, totaling US$400 million or Mexico,is designed to provide equipment and training tolocal security agencies.

S 17, 2008: Assailants throw grenades intoa crowd o Independence Day revelers in Morelia,Michoacn state, killing seven and injuring morethan 100. An unprecedented attack on civilians, itis considered a milestone in the battle between thegovernment and organized crime.

O 24, 2008: President Caldern sends toCongress a proposed constitutional amendmentto make a ederal oense any crime related toviolations o societys undamental values, nationalsecurity, human rights, or reedom o expression,

or or which their social relevance will transcendthe domain o the states.

N 13, 2008: A gunman kills veteran crimereporter Armando Rodrguez Carren in thedriveway o his home in Ciudad Jurez. Hishorried 8-year-old daughter witnesses the murder.

D 9, 2008: Octavio Orellana Wiarco, thespecial prosecutor or crimes against the press,denies that Mexico is one o the worlds mostdangerous countries or the press. Tere is a

wrong perception depicting Mexico as a place withhigh numbers o journalist killings, he says.

J 6, 2009: Masked gunmen in two pickuptrucks re high-caliber weapons and toss a grenadeoutside elevisa studios in Monterrey. No injuries

are reported, but the network equips crimereporters with protective vests.

Al 6, 2009: Te Chamber o Deputies unanimouslyapproves a bill to make crimes against thepress part o the ederal criminal code. Teinitiative takes a dierent approach than theCaldern proposal, but it stalls in the Senate.

M 28, 2009: Te government oers a 5 million peso(US$370,000) reward or inormation leading tothose behind the murder o journalist Eliseo BarrnHernndez. Te reward is considered the rst o its

kind since 1984. Five suspects are later arrested.

N 2, 2009: Authorities nd the bullet-riddenbody o reporter Bladimir Antuna Garca, about12 hours ater he is abducted on a main streetin Durango. Next to his body is a note: Tishappened to me or giving inormation to themilitary and or writing too much.

N 11, 2009: Mara Esther Aguilar Cansimbe,a seasoned police reporter in Zamora, Michoacnstate, goes missing. Aguilar had covered corruption

and organized crime.

F 15, 2010: Gustavo Salas Chvez, a ormerMexico City prosecutor, is appointed the newspecial prosecutor or crimes against the press.News reports highlight that the oce had notsolved any crimes under the two previous ocials.

M 8, 2010: TeDallas Morning News reports thatseveral reporters are abducted in separate episodesin Reynosa, northern Mexico. Tree remainmissing as o June 2010.


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Juan Lpez Ramrez, a riendly man in a light gray suitand blue tie, looked over his large, orderly desk towardthe ull wall o windows in his oce high in the Du-

rango state attorney generals building. Lpez is thestate o Durangos top prosecutor or crimes againstjournalists. His most recent case is the abduction andmurder o Bladimir Antuna Garca, by reputationthe city o Durangos top crime reporter, the one whoalways seemed best inormed about cops and crooksand where they came together.

Lpez gave a CPJ representative this March day astep-by-step brieng on the investigation. We talkedto the witnesses to the abduction. I think there weretwo or three. But they had so little inormationonlythat the men used an SUV, maybe a gray one. And

Antunas widow?She spoke to investigators twice, once when she

reported her husband missing and the next day whenshe identied his body. But, he was asked, Werethese investigative interviews?

Well, a short interview when she made the identi-cation. Since then?

Since then, no, I dont think we have spoken toher. I doubt it. It seemed astonishing. How could au-thorities not thoroughly interview the person closestto the victim? Te visitor rom CPJ persisted: Who

was questioned next?No one, he said. We have not spoken to anyone

else. It had been our and a hal months since themurder, and the special prosecutor o crimes againstjournalists had not had his investigators speak toanyone since the day ater the crime. AlthoughLpez noted the casehad temporarily been in thehands o ederal authorities, or about three weeks,he acknowledged that state investigators had done

virtually no detective work.

Lpez seemed to be admitting the unpardonable.His sta, he said, was a victim o a grand chaos thatwas not its ault, and certainly not his. Te state, likemany in Mexico, is changing rom a trial process inwhich testimony is largely written and is handled byattorneys and judges without witnesses in court. Tenew system will be similar to the U.S. trial system.When it was pointed out that the change had beenplanned or two years and had little to do with thework o investigators in the Antuna case, Lpez smiledcourteously. Tere was, he repeated, much chaos.

Because no one knows who killed Antuna onNovember 2, 2009, or why, journalists in the citysay the investigation o crime stories has essentiallystopped. What reporter would take the chance ounwittingly looking into the same story that caused agroup o armed men to rip Antuna out o his old SUV,torture him or hours, and strangle him?

But its gone urther than that. Reporters told CPJthat they wont look into reports o political corrup-tion, or anything that leads to what they believe areties between authorities, police, and the drug cartelsthathave so much power in the state. Teir ear, theysay, comes rom a certainty they cant provethatsomehow theres a connection between the peoplewho killed Antuna and a nexus o powers that run thestate, powers that wrap together drug cartels, somepolice, and some politicians. So until journalists aresure the Antuna case is solved, they say they dontknow whom to trust. Not with their lives.

Vctor Garza Ayala, owner oEliempo deDurango, Antunas principal employer, said the peoplewho run the state dont want prosecutor Lpez to doanything. Tey know perectly well who killed him.

Crime reporter Bladimir Antuna Garca knew all the cops and crooksin Durango. When he received death threats, state investigatorsignored them. When he was murdered, they ignored that as well.

Murder in Durango3 |


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Tey dont need an investigation, he said. Tey areeither araid o who did it or they are in business withthem. Neither Lpez nor State Attorney GeneralDaniel Garca Leal responded to CPJs request orcomment on the assertion.

Antuna, 39, rst appeared in Durango journalismin the late1980s, his riends said, and he went rompaper to paper to radio stations. His reputation asa reliable investigator with good sources eventuallypushed him highest on the police beat. Ten severalyears ago he descended into alcohol and drug use andnearly slipped away. He came back about three yearsbeore his death, slowly emerging ater rehab, workinglow-level jobs, getting steadier, and trying to get back into journalism. Still, editors werent interested inhearing how hed cleaned up.

But Garza, an elegant man who can talk about his-tory or hours, had a new paper, El iempo. He wrote adaily political column, and when he started the paperin 2006, his reporters said, thats what he cared aboutthe most. But then there were sliding newsstand sales,

and reporters saw him pace the oce in worry.

In May 2008, Antuna asked Garza or a job, one othe journeyman reporters last prospects, his riendssaid. Garza thought that crime stories would workor him. Not on his dignied ront page, but in theback section, the crime section, with the best o theworst crime pictures on the back page. So Garza toldAntuna, yes. Ten, the news hawkers sold the paper byshowing the back page instead o the ront. Circula-tion turned around, according to staers.

Antuna was the key, they said. He pushed out eight

to 12 crime stories a day, mostly short ones. A lot othem were tabloid odder, stories covered or the head-line theyd produce (A Shootout in the Cemetery,or example), according to a review o several hundredo his stories. But sometimes there were exclusives,and sometimes there were stories that showed he hadvery good sources in the army and the police. A closeriend said Antuna used to talk about giving the armygeneral in charge o the Durango area tips on whereto nd large marijuana elds, which suggests he also

had good sources in the remote mountainous areascontrolled by drug gangs, areas where marijuana andopium poppies are grown. (Giving inormation toauthorities in this way is not considered unethical inMexico as it would be in the United States.)

Antuna was coming back, and he was liting El

iempo with him. He was open with people in thenewsroom about his alcoholism and his drug ad-diction, and he took time o rom his shit to go tosupport group meetings. Antuna reconnected withhis older son, the one he told riends hed ailed, andtook a second newspaper job to help pay or the sonsuniversity studies in Mexico City. He was working 14hours a day. It was his reputation and his connectionsthat made him valuable to his second employer, LaVoz de Durango, according to its editor, Juan Nava.Antunas best crime coverage was going to El iempo,Nava knew, but even the letovers were good.

In late October or early November o 2008, the rstcall came on Antunas cell phone. He was in bed withhis wie. He tried to shield the threatening voice, butshe heard it. Te caller said, Knock it o, but inmuch cruder words. Tere were more calls, comingover many months. Tere were threats to stop whathe was doing, but never anything specic. Just to stopit or theyd get him. Maybe, he said, it was comingdirectly rom a drug cartel. But then he said the policeprotect the cartels, so maybe it was rom them. Herecounted the calls in a series o e-mail interviews

with the Mexico City magazine Buzos in July 2009 oran article published that month.

He also told the magazine that on April 28, 2009,as he was going to work, a man got out o an SUV andopened re on him or his house, he couldnt be sure.Te bullets missed and he ran back inside. Te manlet. When Antuna got to work later, his cell phonerang and a voice said, Weve ound your home. Itsover or you now.

Right away, he said, he reported the assault to thestate attorney generals oce, a normal procedurein Mexico. wo agents came by his house or a ew

minutes, he said, but he was not home and thats thelast he heard o an investigation. Tey never came byagain and I havent heard a thing rom them. . Abso-lutely nothing, he said in the Buzos interview.

A month later, on May 27, reporter Eliseo BarrnHernndez, murdered on the other side o the state,was buried. Tat day, Antunas oce received a callrom a man who said, Hes next, that son o a bitch,Antuna told the magazine.

Antuna pushed out a dozen crime

stories a day. Some were exclusives

that reected good sources.


17/51


Antuna also told the Center or Journalism andPublic Ethics, a Mexico City-based press supportgroup, about the attack and the threats. His accountto the center was consistent with his interviews withBuzos and what he was telling his colleagues at Eliempo. He also told the center he had been working

with Barrn, the reporter murdered in May, on storiesabout police corruption in the state o Durango andon the Zetas criminal gang. He said some o thecallers making the phone threats identied themselvesas members o the Zetas.

He told the magazine and the press support groupthat he was getting no protection rom state authori-ties. By the all, he was seldom leaving his home; hisboss at El iempo had set up a computer or him thereso he could avoid going to the oce.

By October 2009, some o Antunas riends in thepress corps said he seemed despondent and terried,

a man seemingly resigned to his own murder. No helpwas coming rom the government, no investigationo the threats, no protection. A riend told CPJ thatAntuna had conded his ears. Its one thing i theyshoot me, he told the riend. You only eel the rstone or two bullets. But I dont want them to tortureme. Te riend said Antuna wanted to be sure hehad money and a will in place to take care o his wieand two sons, 19 and 16. Tere wasnt much money topartition.

Ten came November 2, 10:30 in the morning,when Antuna was driving his red Ford Explorer on a

wide street between a large city park and a hospital.An SUV cut him o, and he swerved across two lanesto get away but another car blocked him rom behind.Witnesses said it was over in seconds: Five men withassault rifes took Antuna away; his drivers door wasstill hanging open when police arrived.

welve hours ater the abduction, Antunas bodywas ound behind the same hospital near where theabduction had taken place. His captors had torturedhim savagely, leaving deep wounds across his up-per chest, according to the coroners report. Teystrangled him with a belt or a strap. A note let beside

Antunas body warned others not to give inormationto the military.

Almost immediately, authorities said there were noleads in the case.

Just as quickly, Antunas colleagues asked ocialsabout the complaint Antuna had led in April aterthe series o threats and the shots red at his home.Garca, the state attorney general, absolved his oce

o any responsibility. He told reporters that Antunamight have mentioned an attack to authorities,but that he never ratied the report by signing acomplaint. Without ratication, there could beno investigation. Garca added that Antuna had notreported the telephone death threats at all,according

to journalists. In other words, the attorney generalwas claiming that Antuna had neglected to tellstate authorities what he had been telling his ellowjournalists, a news magazine, and a Mexico City pressgroup.

But the attorney generals claim appears to becontradicted by records on le in his own oce. Terecords, which were reviewed by CPJ, include anocial complaint signed by Antuna and dated April28, the day o the attack on his house.

Te accompanying investigative report raisesother troubling contradictions. It quotes Antuna, orexample, as saying that the man in the SUV did nothave a gun, although the journalist told numerous

people that the assailant was not only armed, but hadred his weapon. Te report portrays the attorneygenerals investigators as working overtime on thecomplaint, although Antuna said he was neverdirectly contacted by authorities. Te ocial ollow-up report ultimately writes o Antuna as a paranoidman suering hallucinations.

Garca did not respond to CPJs request orcomment on the apparent contradictions.

Te contents o the investigative le on Antunas

murder are more elusive. In a phone conversationwith CPJ in early March, special prosecutor Lpezsaid he would make the le available or review. WhenCPJ arrived or a scheduled appointment at his oceon March 11, however, Lpez said the case le hadbeen transerred to an unspecied department in theederal attorney generals oce. Calls made to ederalauthorities did not turn up the location o the le.

But judging by prosecutor Lpezs description,

Ater months o threats, Antuna

led a complaint with state

ocials. They wrote him of as

paranoid.


18/51


authorities ailed to take even the simplest steps tosolve the crime. Investigators did not interview anyriends, enemies, sources, or colleagues. Tey did notexamine the close ties Antuna had with police, orthe gangs that control the drug business in the statesmountains. Investigators did not read news stories

that Antuna had written to see whom he could haveangeredor check into his pending investigation intopolice corruption. Tey never bothered to checkAntunas statement that phone threats had been madeby members o the Zetas criminal gang, as he toldthe Center or Journalism and Public Ethics. Stateinvestigators never contacted the center or retrievedtelephone records that could have traced the calls.

Nor did they investigate Antunas reportedassociations with an army general in charge omilitary operations in the state. Lpez told CPJ thathis oce concluded there was no link between themurder and Antunas military sources because themilitary had assured him there was none.

Opportunity ater opportunity was wasted orignored. Any one o the leads might have helpedidentiy suspects and bring results. And whileinvestigators ailed in their jobs, the people whothreatened and presumably murdered Antuna werestill at work, still intimidating the journalists amily.

Antunas riends say his widow is so terriedshe has essentially gone into hiding. Tey say shesso araid she wont take phone calls rom assistancegroups that want to oer her aid. She wouldnt speakwith CPJ or this report.

Antunas eldest son was no longer able to studyin the university in Mexico City without his athersnancial help. He returned to Durango and took ajob in a newspaper. Friends o his amily told CPJ thatshortly ater the killing, as the son was about to enterthe newspaper building, he was nearly abducted. Soonater, he was accosted on the street by men who told

him to quit his newspaper job. He did.


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So ar, I have not been able to gure out whether I wascowardly or brave in feeing Ciudad Jurez with myamily and three bags, leaving everything else behind.wo years into exile, I still grapple with the eelings oabandoning my home, leaving my parents, and stop-ping my journalism, which I loved so much ater 18years in the proession.

Te decision to leave Mexico was complicated,emerging over time but arriving with sudden nal-ity. Te idea rst came to mind ater I received veiledwarnings rom corrupt police ocers who recom-mended that I stop asking questions or taking photos

o dead bodies that would shed light on the criminalsthat theyin their uniorms and badgeshad pro-tected. State police once held me at gunpoint while Iwas covering a shooting.

For nearly two decades I covered the CiudadJurez area, West exas, and New Mexico or GrupoReorma, one o Mexicos most prominent publishinghouses. I was threatened with death multiple times,ollowed, harassed, and intimidated as a result o myinvestigative work. In February 2006, ater receivingdeath threats related to my coverage o the murder oa prominent lawyer, I let Jurez temporarily and wentto Nuevo Laredowhere I was again ollowed andharassed ater reporting on the activities o the Gulcartel. I was back in Jurez a ew months later, only tobecome the target o more threats or reporting on thekilling o my colleague Enrique Perea Quintanilla inAugust 2006.

In pursuing what was not merely my job but mypassion, I exceeded sheer reason on many occasions.So it oten happened that in trying to capture the bestimage or dig up a scoop I crossed the thin line intodanger. In 2008, I received reliable inormation thatseveral journalists were named on an organized crimehit list because o their reporting on the Jurez drug

wars. My source told me I was on that list. I wouldlearn later that two others were also named: ArmandoRodrguez Carren, who was killed in November othat year, and Jorge Luis Aguirre, who is now living inexile in exas.

I sometimes think I was like a rog in an experi-ment, placed in water whose temperature is raisedbit by bit until it dies. Despite being photographedat crime scenes by shadowy men in luxury vehicles,despite being ollowed by individuals carrying assaultrifes, I did not sense or some time that my lie was atrisk. But unlike the rog, I nally recognized I was inimminent danger when the temperature went up sud-denly in August 2008.

A massacre at a Jurez drug rehabilitation centerthat month had exposed the use o such acilities tohide the hit men o criminal gangs. I wrote a piece

detailing the complicity o state police and soldiers inconcealing these killers, along with articles allegingillegal arrests and torture committed by these soldierswho were supposed to be ghting the drug trackers.

Treats came rom all sides. In the crossre, I had

no one to turn to or help. Having seen the pervasiveclimate o violent crime and impunity, I could nottrust the government and I could not simply let myselbe killed under some lonely streetlight. In September2008, I let Mexico with my amily and went to Van-couver, Canada.

I am still alive, and I am ortunate or that. But Ieel the pain o having fed my country and my proes-sion. I now have a part-time job as a janitor, the onlywork I could nd ater 14 months o unemployment.My wie, who has expertise in human resources,works as a housekeeper. We are supporting our two

sons and our daughter. We are alive, out o the cross-re but having lost so much.

Luis Horacio Njera is a former correspondent forGrupo Reforma.

Why I Went Into ExileBy Luis Horacio Njera

One o my sources passed along

a tip: I was on a drug cartel hit list.


20/51


Te most important story about the city o Reynosa isthe one you wont learn rom the local press: Te Gulcartel controls the local government, rom major law

enorcement all the way down to street vendor per-mitting. Te cartels control is so extensive that copsand cabbies and street vendors are its spies, watchingthe Mexican armys patrols, watching or rival drugtrackers, watching or ederal investigators, watch-ing, even, their ellow citizens. And the cartel controlsthe press, too, using a combination o intimidation,violence, and bribery. Tis is the story that 22 Reynosajournalists told CPJ but cant tell the public. Tey canteven let their names be published in this report, theysay, because they might be killed.

Its a situation that was years in the making, one

that government ocials, the owners o news orga-nizations, and journalists themselves had a hand increating. oday in Reynosaa city o 600,000, thelargest on the border in northeast Mexico and hometo American-owned assembly plants vital to theeconomyeverything rom horriying violence tomundane municipal corruption goes uncovered.

Drug smuggling came early to Reynosa. Perhaps 60years ago or more it was already an important part othe economy. Until recently, drug gangs used the ter-ritory they controlled simply to ship product north-ward. Ten, about six years ago,Reynosa became amarket or street sales and nally a place to squeezemoney rom locals through kidnapping and extortion,journalists said. In that shit, Reynosa is on the lead-ing edge o a debilitating pattern occurring in much oMexico.

Mari is a part o this historical slide. Ater beinglaid o rom her job at an assembly plant in early 2010,

she began selling tacos rom a sidewalk cooking rigthat her uncle ashioned rom bicycle tires. In doingso, she also became a oot soldier in a system that

collects street intelligence or drug trackers.As one o the many street vendors who seem to

cover the city, Mari said, her assignment is to reportanything in her neighborhood that could interest thecartel. At the moment, the Gul cartel is dominantin Reynosa, and Maris orders are to watch or anysign o the Zetas, its opponent in a war terrorizingthe people o the state o amaulipas. Te cartel isinterested in what the ederal police and the Mexicanarmy are doing, o course, but its especially curiousabout people who may be inorming ederal intelli-gence agents. Tey want to know about new people,

i they have cars, or where they live, Mari said. Dothey come two or three o them or alone? o keep herpermit to sell tacos Mari has to satisy city ocialswho, she said, demand that she pass on the inorma-tion to the cartel. Knowing the danger o speaking tooopenly, Mari asked that her last name not be used.

From the standpoint o the public, the arrange-ment means the city government is supporting asystem o espionage against its own citizens. Fromthe standpoint o journalism, it is an example o howthe cartels have strangled the pressits a crucialstory that cant be covered without risk o death. Druggangs have long had lookouts, but in Reynosa in thelast three or our years, as the Gul cartel began topenetrate ever deeper into city lie and government,almost anyone in Reynosa can be under surveillancerom the street.

Or, rom a taxi. Pirate taxis, cruising about with-out even license plates, massively outnumber legalcabs. Te police department hasnt seemed to notice.An ocer who would give his name only as Lpez

In Reynosa, the Gul criminal group controls the government, thepolice, even the street vendors. You wont see that story in the localpress. Te cartel controls the media, too.

Cartel City4 |


21/51


told CPJ hed merely seen a couple o pirate cabs,and that was back a couple o months. Journalistssaid the pirate cabs are protected by the cartel, payit monthly kickbacks, and are required to use theirradios to report on any movement by the army. Eightpirate cabbies interviewed individually told CPJ the

same thing. All asked or anonymity. Driving taxis isthe way we live, but its the way we will die i we talk,one cabbie said. We are the mobile inormation unitsor them. Tem is the word people in Reynosa useinstead o naming the cartel. Between cab drivers,street vendors, and others, the number o well-placed,roving spies might range into the thousands, Reynosajournalists estimate. Te activities o the pirate taxisare another story that can get you killed, another topicthat has gone unreported in the local press, Reynosajournalists said.

Te cartels enorce this censorship with a mixtureo threats, attacks, and bribery. On specic storiesthe cartels dont want coveredsuch as gunghtsbetween trackers and the armythey tell the policeocers who work or them to tell police reportersthat the news is o-limits. Many reporters on thepolice beat themselves take money to slant coveragein avor o the criminals who pay them, journaliststold CPJ. Te Gul cartel also sponsors its own Website, a sort o public relations outlet, according to aormer reporter or the site. I a story is on the site, itis approved or coverage by the press; otherwise, thetopic is prohibited, the reporter said. Other stories areprohibited by general threats issued long ago. Report-

ers know, or example, never to mention the nameso cartel members or even the names o the cartels intheir stories. Tey say they are even araid to reporton trac accidents because it may turn out that one othose involved was a cartel member (or his girlriend)whose name they did not recognize.

Reporters know they are orbidden to write storieson the widespread kidnappings in the city or thepervasive practice o extortion, which began withlarge companies and has worked its way down to tacostands. A senior editor who met with CPJ only underconditions o great secrecy said the cartel has made its

wishes known in regard to kidnappings and extor-tions. Common kidnappingskidnappings by com-mon criminalsthey would tell us about and tell uswe could cover them. Otherwise, no coverage o kid-nappings. Te same or extortion. Its gotten worse olate, he said. Now they have it all. Teir competitionis gone, so everything is untouchable.

Te editor said journalists also know what itmeans to go against the cartel. Tey will abduct

you; they will torture you or hours; they will killyou, and then dismember you. And your amily willalways be waiting or you to come home. In a chillingillustration o the trackers brutal enorcementmethods, three Reynosa journalists disappeared inMarch and are now eared dead. Colleagues said the

three could have done something to anger either theGul cartel or the Zetas, or have gotten caught up inthe warare by doing avors or one o the groups.

Its hard to be sure when the Gul cartel gained thepower over the city that it has now; it didnt happen ina single blow, reporters said. Most traced the changeto three or our years ago. Beore then, the cartel rana kind o parallel government rom which it stronglyinfuenced institutions such as the police and thecity government. Reynosa Mayor Oscar LuebbertGutirrez did not respond to written questionssubmitted by CPJ, but journalists say the cartel isully embedded in the government and gets nearlywhatever it wants.

For goods crossing the border, the ederal govern-ment is supposed to set customs duties, and agentsare to ensure the payments go to the ederal treasury,reporters said. But several journalists say that thecartel, to a signicant extent, both sets the ees andreceives the revenue. Te reasury Ministry, whichoversees customs ocials, did not respond to CPJsrequest or comment.Within the city government,cartel infuence began with areas such as zoning rulesand alcohol licensing, journalists said. Now, they said,the control has extended to lower-level ocials inmany city departments. Tis, or example, is how thecartel is able to deny Mari a street vendors license ishe reuses to inorm or them. Its vast infuence overmunicipal police means that cartel crimes are ignoredwhile street vendor licenses are closely scrutinized,

journalists said. Speaking o the police, Mari told CPJ:Oh, they are always interested in me here and theothers, too.

Reporters and editors said part o the cartels take-over was through straight nancing o political cam-paigns, but much is enorced through death threats.Ater a union ocial was abducted and later released,they noted, cartel members suddenly appeared asghost workers on the city payroll and on the payrolls

The cartel enorces censorship with

threats, attacks, and bribes. Even

car accidents can be of-limits.


22/51


o private companies. City ocials who dont carryout cartel orders are araid or their lives, report-ers said. Tese stories, too, are not or the people oReynosa to read or hear. As the people lost their city,journalists acknowledge, reporters could not sharewhat they knew.

When the Gul cartel came to the region with payosand threats targeting journalists, the gangsters wereimposing their own vicious twist on a system alreadyin place, one created in part by the government andthe press themselves. Owners o news organizationsand local government leaders have long had a sharedinterest in controlling what the press tells the public,according to many journalists in Reynosa. And overmany years, they said, journalists have gotten usedto being told to stay away rom many topicsbeingbribed or complying and red or reusing.

As in most parts o Mexico, the state and localgovernments have historically been major advertisersin the local press. Without government contractsmaybe most o the media here would have to close,

said the senior editor who met with CPJ. Some othe ads are typical public service announcements,but others are virtual campaign ads. Tis advertisingstream eectively gives government ocials vetoover stories they dont like, journalists claim, to thepoint that reporters hardly even think about writingone. A reporter or Reynosas largest newspaper, ElMaana, gave an example. He said that several yearsago when he proposed a story on what seemed to be aprevious mayors unexplained wealth, his editor toldhim: We have an agreement with the mayor. I youhave something bad to say about him, start your ownnewspaper.

Helping to enorce the scheme is a dual systemo unlivable low wages or reporters and open publicpayos, or chayo, rom city hall. Even at the largenews outlets, reporters make the equivalent oabout US$350 a month. Accepting the bribes seemsnecessary, but once journalists take payos, theyare expected to treat city government avorably.Honest coverage will cost them. Te president othe statewide Democratic Union o Journalists,

Oscar Alvizo Olmeda, estimated that 90 percent oReynosas journalists are on the public payroll, a gurewith which local journalists agreed. Reporters say thesystem is so organized that they sign receipts at cityhall when they get their money.

Te senior editor said owners o news

organizations encouraged the arrangement becauseit saved them money in salaries and kept them out otrouble with the government. Te editor said, We allknow the reporter gets his chayo and then he becomesthe governments very good riend. Reynosa, and itsstate o amaulipas, may be Mexicos most extremeexample o government payos to reporters, accordingto Mexican organizations that monitor the press.

Te very scheme by which reporters and editorsignored local government weaknesses eectivelyenabled powerul drug trackers to challenge a cityhall too eeble and corrupt to resist. Te need or

honest reporting on local government was suddenlyclear, but the time was past. Now, journalists say, thecartel thugs are giving orders to city authorities; thecartel is the power telling the press what the people oReynosa can and cannot know. Censorship is enorcedwith a gun.

In controlling the press, the cartel wants toavoid heating up the plaza, a phrase that meansdrawing too much attention to the drug marketplace,according to journalists. Tey said the cartel easilycontrols the local government but wants the ederalgovernment to stay away rom Reynosa and the state

o amaulipas, the area the Gul cartel dominates.Dont think the ederal government doesnt knowwhat we are suering, said the senior editor. But ithe plaza is not hot, i there is no news coverage, thenthe ederal government can pretend it doesnt know.I the citizens are kept ignorant, then the pressure orederal intervention is less.

Te situation was appalling enough as the cartelpenetrated the government while the press stayedsilent. But then in late February vicious combatbroke out between the Gul cartel and the Zetas. InReynosa and communities nearby, gunghts eruptedin the streets. Reports in the U.S. press put the deathsamong gangsters in the dozens. But average peoplewere in mortal danger, too, and the reporters knew,usually without being told, that they risked death ithey reported the ghting. Tere was essentially nocoverage o the war in the local press, journalists said.Te owners o press outlets were threatened directly,according to Gildardo Lpez, president o the local

Ater a union ocial was abducted,

cartel members suddenly appeared

on the city payroll.


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Chamber o Commerce. I know them, Lpez said.wo o them are close riends. Tose two went toexas and took their amilies or a while.

Tere were dozens o shootouts, some running ormore than an hour, and nearby towns were shot up.But you wouldnt know there was open warare on

the streets rom reading the local papers, watchingV, or listening to the radio those days. Only U.S.newspapers and wire services gave it wide coverage.Te situation deteriorated to the point that on March14, the U.S. State Department authorized dependentso Foreign Service workers in the two Americanconsulates closest to ReynosaNuevo Laredo andMatamorosto leave the country.

Ten, on April 1, in a spectacular daylight moveagainst the army, one o the two warring cartels drovea convoy o SUVs to the ront o a military base inReynosa and opened re with assault rifes and hand

grenades. While the soldiers tried to react, the gang-sters blocked the exits to the base with stolen trucks.Te tactic seems to have been to box the soldiersinside their base to give cartel hit men reedom to killtheir adversaries without intererence. Te militaryissued a press release, but there was virtually noindependent inormation on the success o the assaultor the extent o shootings citywide that ollowed. Telocal press simply did not cover the story. Te mainstory the next day acrossthe ront page oEl Maana,the regions main paper, was on an unexplained lack ointerest in people picking up their voter credentials onthe last day they were available.

A radio talk show host spoke o the dilemma otrying to warn theaudience during the worst o thewarare without being killed or doing so. What doI say? I cant tell them the truth. No, not that. But

how can I let them die in a gun battle? So I mightsay something like, In such a place its dangerous ornow. Or, I hear these are some good streets to stayaway rom. Or, A caller said she heard the director atschool X said some o the parents were taking theirchildren home.

Te senior editor had similar refections about thedanger o telling the public the truth to help save theirlives. We cant report that the situation is serious be-cause that is considered heating up the plazamuch

less that there are convoys o SUVs driven by killerso the Gul cartel driving wildly through our townsshooting .50-caliber heavy machine guns down thestreets. Forget that.

But then he added something new. Can we pub-lish that people are hiding in their homes? Is panicgood or business? So, no, we cannot. In other words,reporting the truth about an area being shot up bygangsters is not good or advertisers, either.

Lpez, the head o the Chamber o Commerce,said much the same. We thought it was a good ideato censor coverage o the ghting because as a busi-ness group its against our interest to publish it. Heclaimed there was no pressure rom his group on theowners o local news organizations. It was, he said, amatter o shared interests.

The need or honest reporting on

government was urgent, but the

press could no longer act.


24/51


On December 17, 1986, the Colombian maa led byPablo Escobar killed Guillermo Cano, the courageousdirector oEl Espectadorwho denounced drugtrackers and their accomplices by name. He was theseventh journalist killed in reprisal or his work thatyear. Since then, drug tracking gangs, guerrillas,paramilitaries, and corrupt government ocials haveattacked the rights o Colombians to be inormed by aree press.

In the ace o great risks that have spanned thelast quarter o a century, Colombian news mediahave developed strategies both to protect reporters

and to avoid being silenced by illegal, armed criminalorganizations.

Right ater Cano was killed, the entire Colombianpress corps protested. In the ollowing 24 hours, thecountry received no news o any kind, in print, onradio, or on television. Tis blackout was a sign omourning, yet it was also a way to seek support romsociety and emphasize the importance o journalismin a democracy threatened by the intimidating andbrutal power o drug trackers. o show that it wouldnot be so easy to censor the press, El Espectadorjoined with its main competitor, El iempo, and other

media outlets in the ollowing months to investigateand publish stories about drug tracking and itsmany tentacles in society. Te message sent to theMedelln cartel bosses: Te press would not besilenced.

Unortunately, such courage and unity aded withtime. A decade later, many more journalists had beenmurdered in Colombia.

So in 1996, prominent journalists joined togetheragain to create the Foundation or a Free Press, orFLIP. Te ounders included the writer Gabriel GarcaMrquez; Enrique Santos Caldern, a columnist orEl iempo and a leader in the battle against impunityin anti-press crimes with the Inter AmericanPress Association; and Santos cousin, later thecountrys vice president, Francisco Santos Caldern.Tis organization, with initial support rom theCommittee to Protect Journalists, started advocatingon behal o journalists and media under attack romall sides in the countrys armed confict.

Supported urther by the Peru-based Instituto dePrensa y Sociedad, FLIP went on to create a networko volunteer correspondents who have since reportedon press reedom violations throughout the country.Reporters then succeeded in getting PresidentAndrs Pastrana Arangos administration to create aspecial committee to protect endangered journalists.FLIP and other media organizations are part o thecommittee and, while it is not fawless, it has providedan opportunity or dialogue and collaboration and hassucceeded in holding the government accountable orprotecting reedom o expression.

Media outlets have developed other collaborativeand protection strategies over the past years. Atthe end o the 20th century, a group o reporterspublished the Manual for War and Peace Reporting(Manual para Cubrir la Guerra y la Paz), while thenongovernmental group Peace Media (Medios parala Paz) published the Disarming Words Dictionary(Diccionario para desarmar palabras). Both wereaimed at providing guidance or reporters coveringthe armed confict, where truth is usually the rstvictim. In 1999, invited by La Sabana University,about 30 media outlets agreed on how to report onviolence without justiying it; to rene journalistic

tools such as veriying and contrasting sources; and toprioritize act-checking to avoid being manipulated.Teir slogan: We would rather miss a piece o newsthan lose a lie. FLIP also published a manual orjournalists sel-protection that eatured advice onhow to deal with pressure rom violent sources.

At the initiative o the newspaper publishersassociation, known as Andiarios, a coalition oprint media outlets began working together in 2004on dangerous assignments such as paramilitaryinltration in the lottery. Tis and other investigativestories were published simultaneously in 19

Colombian magazines and newspapers. It was a wayo ghting sel-censorship by bringing importantreports to the public while reducing the risk tothe local outlets closest to the violent actors. TenewsweeklySemana led another collaborativeeort, the Manizales Project, which was designed toinvestigate murders and threats against journalists.Tis collaboration would also work on the very stories

How Colombian Media Met Dangerous TimesBy Mara eresa Ronderos


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that had been thwarted when the initial reporters hadbeen threatened, killed, or orced to fee the country.

Tese are valuable experiences that can inspirecolleagues who are orced to work under threat oviolence. Teir main lesson is that when such diretimes arrive, it is necessary to adjust our proession

by becoming more rigorous and more cautious. Eventhough competition among media, so healthy underpeaceul democracies, may continue, it is important

to build bridges between rivals to deend thehigher value o reedom o the press and reedomo expression, which society has trusted us touphold.

Mara eresa Ronderos is a prominent Colombian

journalist who has worked for numerous print and

television news outlets. A former managing editor ofSemana and former president of FLIP, she is now amember of CPJs Board of Directors.

Heading in Dierent DirectionsColombia remains a dangerous country or the press, but measures taken by news outlets, press reedomgroups, and the government have helped reduce the atality rate over the last two decades, CPJ research shows.Mexico, once a relatively stable country or the press, has grown increasingly dangerous during that same

period. Here is a comparison o atalities in the two countries since 1992, when CPJ began compiling detaileddeath records.

Te data include cases in which CPJ has conrmed the motive as work-related, and cases in which journalism isa possible but unconrmed motive.

Colombia1992 1 atality

1993 4 atalities

1994 2 atalities

1995 3 atalities

1996 1 atality

1997 5 atalities

1998 9 atalities

1999 7 atalities

2000 7 atalities

2001 8 atalities

2002 9 atalities

2003 6 atalities

2004 2 atalities

2005 1 atality

2006 3 atalities

2007 1 atality2008 0 atalities

2009 3 atalities

2010 1 atality

Mexico1992 0 atalities

1993 0 atalities

1994 1 atality

1995 3 atalities

1996 0 atalities

1997 3 atalities

1998 2 atalities

1999 0 atalities

2000 2 atalities

2001 1 atality

2002 0 atalities

2003 0 atalities

2004 4 atalities

2005 2 atalities

2006 7 atalities

2007 6 atalities2008 5 atalities

2009 8 atalities

2010 4 atalities


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9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

32

31

30

28

27

26

25

24

2322

21

20

19

18

171615

14

1312

1110

A Trail of Violent Repressionore than 30 journalists and media support workers have been murdered or have disappeared

uring the tenure of President Felipe Caldern Hinojosa, who took office on December 1, 2006.

urnalists murdered/Motive confirmedain in di rect relation to their work.

Rodolfo Rincn Taracena, Tabasco HoyJanuary 20, 2007, Villahermosa

Amado Ramrez Dillanes, Televisa and RadioramaApril 6, 2007, Acapulco

Alejandro Zenn Fonseca Estrada, EXA FMSeptember 24, 2008, Villahermosa

Armando Rodrguez Carren, El Diario de Ciudad JurezNovember 13, 2008, Ciudad Jurez

Eliseo Barrn Hernndez, La OpininMay 25, 2009, Gmez Palacio

Norberto Miranda Madrid, Radio VisinSeptember 23, 2009, Nuevo Casas Grandes

Bladimir Antuna Garca, El Tiempo de DurangoNovember 2, 2009, Durango

Valentn Valds Espinosa, Zcalo de SaltilloJanuary 8, 2010, Saltillo

Media support workers murderedain in the course of their duties.

Flor Vsquez Lpez, El Imparcial del IstmoOctober 8, 2007, between Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec

0 Mateo Corts Martnez, El Imparcial del IstmoOctober 8, 2007, between Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec

1 Agustn Lpez Nolasco, El Imparcial del IstmoOctober 8, 2007, between Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec

ournalists missing

2 Gamaliel Lpez Candanosa, TV Azteca NoresteMay 10, 2007, Monterrey

3 Gerardo Paredes Prez, TV Azteca NoresteMay 10, 2007, Monterrey

4 Mara Esther Aguilar Cansimbe,El Diario de Zamora and Cambio de MichoacnNovember 11, 2009, Zamora

5 David Silva, El Maana and La TardeMarch 2010, Reynosa

6 Pedro Argello, El Maana and La TardeMarch 2010, Reynosa

7 Miguel Angel Domnguez Zamora, El MaanaMarch 2010, Reynosa

8 Ramnngeles Zalpa, Cambio de MichoacnApril 6, 2010, Paracho

Journalists murdered/Motive unconfirmedPossibly slain for their work. CPJ is investigating the motiv

19 Sal No Martnez Ortega, InterdiarioApril 2007, Nuevo Casas Grandes

20 Gerardo Israel Garca Pimentel, La Opinion de MichoDecember 8, 2007, Uruapan

21 Mauricio Estrada Zamora, La Opinin de ApatzingnFebruary 12, 2008, Apatzingn

22 Teresa Bautista Merino, La Voz que Rompe el SilenciApril 7, 2008, Putla de Guerrero

23 Felicitas Martnez Snchez, La Voz que Rompe el SileApril 7, 2008, Putla de Guerrero

24 Miguel Angel Villagmez Valle, La Noticia de MichoaOctober 10, 2008, between Lzaro Crdenas and Zih

25 Jean Paul Ibarra Ramrez, El CorreoFebruary 13, 2009, Iguala

26 Carlos Ortega Samper, El Tiempo de DurangoMay 3, 2009, Santa Mara del Oro

27 Juan Daniel Martnez Gil, Radiorama and W RadioJuly 28, 2009, Acapulco

28 Jos Emilio Galindo Robles, Radio Universidad de GuNovember 24, 2009, Ciudad Guzmn

29 Jos Alberto Velzquez Lpez, Expresiones de TulumDecember 22, 2009, Tulum

30 Jos Luis Romero, Lnea DirectaJanuary 2010, Los Mochis

31 Jorge Ochoa Martnez, El Sol de la CostaJanuary 29, 2010, Ayutla de los Libres

32 Evaristo Pacheco Sols, Visin InformativaMarch 12, 2010, Chilpancingo


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When the Caldern administration declared anational oensive against the powerul criminalgroups threatening the nations stability, it signaled

that state and local governments were too weak andcorrupt to wage a battle so central to Mexicos uture.But nearly our years ater beginning its oensive, theederal government has ailed to take responsibilityor one o the wars crucial ronts: the widespreadand unpunished attacks that are destroying citizensconstitutionally and internationally protected right toree expression. Te same state and local authoritiesso deeply corrupted by criminal groups remain largelyin charge o ghting crimes against ree expression,including murder, threats, and attacks on journalistsand news outlets. Teir recorda near completeailure to enorce the law in crimes against the press

demands that Congress and the executive branch acturgently to take responsibility or this national crisis.

Te ederal government has national andinternational responsibilities to address impunityin violence against journalists. Articles 6 and 7 o

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