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Thousands of guns lie on the ground before their destruction in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua State, Mexico on February 16, 2012. At least 6000 rifles and pistols seized to drugs cartels were destroyed by members of the Mexican Army.
MIAMI – "If they're going to kill you, they're going to kill you," said Luz del Carmen Sosa, a reporter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and mother of two, who spends most of her day running from one murder scene to another. "Even if you arrive surrounded by police, security escorts, whoever wants to hurt you will hurt you."
Just 20 miles from Ciudad Juarez, photojournalist Alejandro Hernández Pacheco did get hurt. On July 26, 2010, Hernandez was part of a TV news crew videotaping at a prison in the city of Gomez Palacio when he was kidnapped at gunpoint, along with two colleagues.
"They took us to a place that was covered with dried blood, with teeth and hair stuck to the walls," said Hernandez. He stopped himself from describing the room any further, saying it brings back terrifying memories.
"They hit us until they tired," he said, adding that the gunmen also threatened to burn him alive. "They hit me in the head with a piece of wood, on my back, my knees, my ankles." The men were released five days later. Authorities believe the kidnappers were members of the notorious Sinaloa cartel.
Stringer/Mexico / Reuters
Galia Rodriguez, 8, daughter of reporter Armando Rodriguez who was killed in Ciudad Juarez, takes part in an anniversary in the journalists's park in the border city of Ciudad Juarez on Nov. 13, 2010. Suspected drug gangs shot dead Rodriguez, a Mexican crime reporter who worked for El Diario de Ciudad Juarez on Nov. 13, 2008 in Ciudad Juarez.
Mexico has become a killing field for reporters, according to a study released this week by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The organization’s "Attacks on the Press in 2011" study shows 48 Mexican journalists have disappeared or have been killed in the last five years across the country.
CPJ's survey found the increase in crimes against media workers began with the start of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's escalated war against narcotics traffickers, a crusade which has led rival cartels to fight for control of the profitable drug routes into the United States.
‘Nothing has changed’
Pressure from international press organizations like CPJ prompted the Calderon administration to launch an initiative to protect the country's journalists. London-based writers group PEN has called for "immediate and definitive action" to end the killings of journalists in Mexico.
But the killings and kidnappings continue.
"Nothing has changed," Hernandez said. "No one is going to protect them [journalists], they have no one to turn to for protection, but themselves."
In Ciudad Juarez, a city that sees an average of eight murders a day, Sosa says journalists put competition for exclusive stories aside and call each other when news breaks, so they can travel to cover developments as a group. A 23-year veteran crime reporter of the award-winning El Diario, Sosa and other experienced journalists have also gotten used to giving up their byline for a simple "staff" byline when they write a story that may infuriate a cartel leader or government official.
Mexico's drug war is also part of a drug culture with roots in music, movies and even religion
Self-censorship
Journalists complain the threats have led to the spread of self-censorship. Mexico City-based correspondent Ana Arana said much of the country is suffering from what she calls "news black holes."
Arana runs Fundacion MEPI, an independent investigative nonprofit. In an effort to determine how pervasive self-censorship has become, the group studied the coverage of drug-related crimes by 11 regional newspapers, as well as the national edition of Milenio and El Universal in 2010 and then again in 2011.
MEPI found that in Nuevo Laredo and other crime-ridden cities, the press was barely covering gangland executions and other drug-related crimes. And if they published stories on those types of crimes, they did so without mentioning suspects.
"We don't know how bad things are in some regions of the country because of self-censorship," said Dallas Morning News reporter Alfredo Corchado, who has been covering Mexico for many years. "Who can blame Mexican journalists for self-censoring themselves when the government is incapable of protecting them, or even solving one case of colleagues killed," he added.
Some Mexican authorities seem to be censoring their information too, according to many reporters. "What we are seeing is that the government forces are slow to respond, or against sharing statistics or details about specific drug violence," said Arana.
That increasingly leaves the public depending on social media for information. Many turn to Facebook and Twitter for the latest on crime hot spots. But even that source of information is being curtailed, especially after the murder of Marisol Macias Castro.
The 39-year-old Twitter user posted notes on the criminal activities of local cartel members last September. She was found decapitated shortly after. Two other murders have also been linked to the use of social media to denounce a drug cartel.
The NBC station in El Paso, Texas reports on the Mexican photojournalist Alejandro Hernandez's efforts to seek asylum in the U.S. after he was kidnapped and tortured by a drug cartel.
‘Not going to retire because I'm scared’
While the risk of reporting worsens, many won't give up their dangerous profession. Sosa has told her children, now 17 and 20 years old, she does not want a funeral when she dies, because she has seen so many she has developed an aversion to them.
But she says the drug war violence won't force her to quit. "I'm not going to retire because I'm scared or because I'm tired," she said. "This is what I know how to do and this is what I love doing."
Hernandez also refused to give up being a journalist, but 19 months after being kidnapped he now practices his profession in the U.S. He was granted political asylum and now works as a photojournalist for a TV network in Texas, where he lives with his wife and three sons.
But those still reporting from Mexico have to continue to brave the dangers.
Culiacan reporter Javier Valdez Cardenas survived a grenade attack in the course of his work. Last year, he was the awarded the CPJ's International Press Freedom award. In his acceptance speech last September, he spoke about the grim tragedy continuing to unfold in his country.
"Mexico is living a tragedy that should shame us,” said Cardenas. “The youth will remember this as a time of war. Their DNA is tattooed with bullets and guns and blood, and this is a form of killing tomorrow."
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People in the USA largely ignore the problems in Mexico as if they are happening on the other side of the world like in Syria.
Mexico should be our primary concern, not Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, etc. Mexico is our friend, but it is also one of our biggest threats. Those other countries are neither of those things.
Say, let's have open borders and let them all in!
NOT!
I wish it was.
These Cartels are monsters. They are evil. They have NO respect for life, NO love of anything good. They are a blight, a plaque. The only reason the Mexican government hasn't been able to do anything about it is because the Cartels have infiltrated the government and the military on multiple levels. The reason the US government hasn't cleaned house is because certain politicians have too much of a financial interest vested in the cartels (I can't say which ones, but certain monies going across the border suggest that corrupt US politicians are in on the game).
The way to get rid of the Cartels is for some really rich guy, like Warren Buffet, to hire an eliete foreign mercenary army about 30,000 strong (I'm thinking Swiss, German, or Russian) to infiltrate Mexico, gather intelligence, and systematically wipe out the Cartels. Sure there would be extreme political backlash, and there would be innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, but with a competent mercenary force on the job the issue would be settled with a sense of finality.
We aren't ignoring them. We know very well what is going on, and the 99% want our damn government to protect our borders and keep it from coming here!
"Mexico should be our primary concern,"
Wrong !
Our own country should be our primary concern.
So, stop buying illegal s**t from Cartels. Its like buying stuff from China. The US can't stop and so guess where the money for the killing comes from? Us.
Whatever. Nobody posting here or in the US actually gives two s**ts who gets killed as long as it isn't their kid. If they did, they'd have gotten off their computer and done something about it. I'm not passing a moral judgement. I'm just saying the opposite. Don't tell me its because of some big concern that anyone suddenly is paying attention. Its entertaining for people to read in the paper and any concern is fake.
If you de criminalize all drugs, the profit disappeares and there is no more violence. Once the profit motive is gone the gangs will leave, just like after probation. When liquor was available to everyone , the gangsters went into the walls. Simple but against government will and against the bible thumpers. You can never legislate morality. The government needs to get way out of our lives.
Until the US can control their appetite for drugs - all of the countries in the region will continue to suffer. The demand in the US and the failed "war" against drugs is the direct cause of this problem. Calderon has made the fatal mistake of letting the US fight their drug problem on Mexican soil - The PAN party of Calderon will not win the presidency in 2012 and their is a broad consensus across Mexican society to stop fighting this unwinnable war for the US. The only way to end this problem is to look for a solution to the demand for drugs in the US. Mexico has already decriminalized possession for personal use of all drugs in Mexico and until the US does the same or considers other options - this US problem will continue to affect all of the countries in the Americas.
I think you just disproved your point in your own statement.
Mexico is a cesspool of criminals and corrupt politicians.
Why would any American go there? After all, you can see the 'culture' right here in America in any big city.
In historical terms, there were vast differences which led to a great deal of American visitors to Mexico. First, there was a history for decades when many Americans would go to Mexican border towns for cheap prostitutes (American male clients) and cheap shopping (American female clients). Over the past couple of decades this trend was eclipsed by people going there (primarily young college students) because the bars and discoes are not under legal pressure to stop serving alcohol when a person appears inebriated.
People also went to Mexico historically because it's a beautiful country with an incredible history. The same reasons for visiting this incredible country exist today.
Have you ever seen any pyramids? They're amazing works of architecture, not to speak of the history they depict both in the pyramids and in some of the ruins near them.
The countryside is distinctly different in many places from that in the US and Canada. It definitely bears looking at! If you love natural beauty, this is a great place. I remember my first view, flying into Mexico City. There was such an abundance of flowers--and not just "ordinary" lovely flowers, of which we have many, but also so much more! The intensity of the colors was breathtaking!
The Mexican people, other than the cartel folk, are beautiful, warm, and caring. I lived there from 1979 to 1982. It was an incredible experience living amidst, working with, and socializing with these loving and generous folks.
Oh yes, you missed the point here--there are SO MANY more reasons to go to Mexico other than the (very negative) ones you have listed. It is--in many ways--a crime that the cartels have robbed people of the chance to visit Mexico without fear of loss of life.
Legalise the dope, take away there money. "But people will use drugs and die." Yup, by there own hand, there decision.
Or, do it the way we have for the past 50 yrs which (anybody notice ?) DOES NOT WORK.
It's "their". "THEIR"!
nu-uh i texted it
Who gives a @!$%# how its spelled you got the point didn't you. Were here to discuss mexico not spelling.
The authors of this article are way behind in reporting the cartels killing journalists.
Maybe they should FOCUS on the continuing influx of illegal aliens (immigrants), drugs, and potential terrorists crossing the borders into the U.S. instead. Nah, that would be against the DHS's continued statements that our borders are SECURE.
Obama may send an apology letter to Mexico. No?
I think I would stick to reporting lost dogs and kite flying contests.
Afghanistan: not a border country, not militarily advanced, does not appreciate our efforts, not a friendly nation, the list goes on; we pour billions of dollars into infrastructure, send our young men and women to die, prop up their dysfunctional government.
Mexico: a border country, a trade partner, our neighbours, friendly relations; do it yourself and we'll ship the cartels guns.
Something is seriously wrong in the heads of our leaders.
Although I agree with almost everything to state, "friendly relations"? Really? Accusing us of arming the drug cartels despite the fact that the vast majority Illegal weapons do not come from the United States, but rather the Mexican military and other sources, does not qualify as "friendly relations".
That is one thing that Mexico and Afghanistan have in common; Trashing the US for their own political gain despite all we do for them.
I was referring to the fast and furious scandal and the fact that they certainly don't want to destroy us, war with us and set their entire country against us. In that regard Mexico is a nation with which we have friendly relations.
Fast and furious is a drop in the bucket in comparison to the total amount of weaponry these cartels have. I wouldn't be so sure about them not wanting to destroy us. Many want the territories they lost in the Mexican-American war back. Living in Southern California myself you would be amazed out how many Latino's believe the southwest (California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas) still belongs to Mexico.
You are correct in the fact that Mexico does not want an armed conflict with the United States but they are currently engaged in unofficial economic warfare with us. Hence the illegal immigration problem we have here in the southwest.
I love it that they had to show a pile of guns slated to be destroyed--like that's going to solve anything. Most of these guns are from perfectly legal sales from our fine American gun manufacturers to the Mexican government. From there they filter down through the ranks to the common criminal (which is indistinguishable from any police or military officer.) Contrary to popular Liberal myth, most of these guns aren't waltzed across the US border straight to the gangsters--which is entirely possible since the Narco-Republic formerly known as Mexico does not police its borders--you can just walk over the border through an iron revolving door with no immigration/customs inspection whatsoever.
Legalize/Decriminalize narcotics in the US and let the gangsters fight over the scraps. This won't happen because corrupt officials at the federal, state, and local level in the US are making a fortune too on this "War on Drugs." Furthermore, you could lay off--permanently--about 75% of the criminal justice system here. This is yet another reason it will never occur.
The gangs are super rich; if they want guns, someone will provide them. Money talks.
You mean Gun Control wouldnt work?
I'm glad someone said it. Destroying 6000 guns!! Are you @!$%#ing serious?!?! Sell the guns to a legitimate business and give the money to the starving kids of your country. Even if they got $200 a gun thats 1.2 MILLION dollars!! Stupid as hell if you ask me. Legalizing cannabis will not put the cartels out of business but it will damn sure take a huge chunk out as it is Americas favorite drug. Problem is the jails, local police, federal police, border patrol, and big pharma. According to the Department of Energy, hemp as a biomass fuel producer requires the least specialized growing and processing procedures of all hemp products. The hydrocarbons in hemp can be processed into a wide range of biomass energy sources, from fuel pellets to liquid fuels and gas. Development of biofuels could significantly reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and nuclear power.
Its true that getting rid of all the guns would stop gun crime but the STUPID part is everyone thinking its possible to get rid of all the guns. You think criminals are going to turn their guns in?
The Mexican government has been behind the eight ball for many years. Now it seems a virtual impossibility for them to get on top of the carnage. it is an all out bloodbath between the cartels and anything in their paths. Mexico used to be on my bucket list.... not any more.... I wanted to visit a quaint mexican city, not die in a hail of gunfire.
I still think we should annex Mexico as a US territory and clean it up. Just think about how many problems that solves... illegal immigration, drug trafficking, etc.
Pat8
If by clean it up, you mean kick them all out to the south of Mexicos southern border, I am all for it.
Then we could deport all illegal aliens with them, or they could stay and be shot.
agree annex Mexico,take over all their problems!
The problem is not Mexico, the real problem is the person who use drugs Americans?
dream on you bunch of racist yahoos ! that will never ever happen if anything it looks as if mexico is retaking what was stolen from them and a little bit more .
....that's funny,where's the part in the story that blames all this on America?......
The article states, "Mexico has become a killing field for reporters"...
WRONG!
Making such an ignorant statement only underscores just how "brain-dead" journalist and reporters are!
Mexico has BEEN a Killing Field... period, not "just for reporters" but for every living thing you fools!
And so, is this supposed to be news? Pa-leeeeeeze!
#1. Why should anyone care about journalists in general?
Like ask yourselves, "What is so unbelievably wrong with a country, where millions and millions of their people continually RISK their lives, and the lives of their families, to FLEE from, for decades and decades... crawling through the deadly heat, Scorpion and poisonous snake infested deserts of the USA, with a good possibility of getting caught, put in jail and deported, again and again and again...
Just to get the hell away from Mexico?
And then "some people" are THAT stupid that they cannot understand "why being there MAY BE dangerous??"
Besides, journalists are one of the lowest forms of life on the planet, right there with brain-dead terrorists. I have far more respect for poisonous snakes and scorpions than ANY journalist on Earth, with very, very few exceptions.
You know what you call a whole lot of DEAD journalists?
A GREAT start!
Like the middle east, this is another country full of nothing but feral, wild, idiots. We would be doing humanity a disservice if we didn't take them out of the gene pool.
I like Mexico, have found the Mexican people to warm and gracious.
Amen. I used to love to visit Mexico. What a sad thing to read about what's going on - and were it not for the bravery (or idiocy) of reporters, we would never know what's going on south of the border.
We need to take the trash out soon.
It isn't that no one in the U.S. cares; it's that the violence and horror never stops, and it's no longer an OMG! story... it's just another day
And here's obama, wanting to legalize 10 to 20 million illegal mexicans in this country now. He wants an open border. In fact he has canceled the army reserves, that were helping the border patrols. He has taken people off some border crossings, saying they are not really needed there, and will save money. Americans are being killed there, and here in the states by the cartels. But does obama do anything?? No, he's busy sticking his dang nose in every other countries business. OBAMA, TAKE CARE OF YOUR CITIZENS!!
End NAFTA, make a new deal with Canada only.
it's a good idea probably we don't receive in Mexico more guns from US
They find hoards of hundreds of millions of dollars at the drug lords homes. If they want guns, they will get what ever kind they want, from wherever they want. Most of the guns come from other sources anyway.
OMG you mean gun control wouldnt work? Greeeeen Greeeeen sorry got to go the phone!
What I find really frightening is how our government is content to let our friend, Mexico, suffer under the boot of drug cartels. Can you imagine, 45,000 people killed since 2006, and barley a peep out of Washington.
There haven't been that many people killed in the entire Middle East in that time period, yet we spend hundreds of billions of dollars on that sewer and not a care for the Mexican people.
This one belongs to Omama. Help the Mexicans. Send in assassination squads to kill the cartels. Since the laws don't work, screw the laws and kill the bastards. You can apologise later.
Note to Journalists in Mexico. Find a different field to work in. Duh. What's the matter with you?
Reporters are a dime a dozen.... No one needs to reiterate what's common knowledge. One Mexican citizen dies every 1/2hr. to the drug war, so how many reporters are we talking?
Let's annex Mexico - drive it's population to Guatemala - set up an impenetrable fence (it's narrow there) and set up costal villas and vacation destinations.
Mexico has given America a feast of problems - it's time to return the favor.
PulSamsara, Are you running for president or congress?
You just won my vote.
Time to expand the United States.
WELL! loooks like TSUPID Journalists are on the mexixican menu! YUK! rEATd ON!
All these people saying Mexico is worth supporting more than syria or other middle eastern countries.
1) Afganistan is not in the middle east i know many of you don't pay attention at school.
2) The people of Syria are fighting for their freedom as of many middle eastern countries, we help them because we can have common interest and plus the USA wants to get on the good side of these revolutions since the USA can't control the middle east anymore.
3) Mexicans don't want to help themselves. Look at the pictures, many of the population is puffin the magic dragon.
4) did they hit the streets demanding no more drug ? if they did how many times ? barely
5)Syrians fight for something much more noble than drugs, freedom. A country like mexico is a waste for they are numb, they lost that feeling of believing in their country and many decided to pack up and leave.
6) A country that doesn't believe in itself is not worth saving. Saving a country starts with its people. Look at Syria they protest and die everyday. If you think Mexico is bad then i dare you to go to syria for a day.
7)The blood that spills in Syria in freedom blood, what spills in Mexico is ignorance, lack of change and hope DRUG BLOOD.
8) May there be peace in Mexico, Don't get me wrong but to change don't wait for the Americans. START WITH YOURSELVES.
Boy-cott Mexican drugs.
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