Intimidation Serves A Purpose And The Result Is Frightening

Michael Hedges August 5, 2019 - Follow on Twitter

Reporting on crime and corruption is a dangerous calling. Those pressing deeply into those swamps are sure to meet the creepy crawlies who dwell there. Many are venomous and unrepentant. Some scatter with the sunlight; not all. It is called the underworld for a reason.

Three media workers in Mexico were murdered within the past week, reported Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin. Rogelio Barragan was found dead Tuesday, the tenth Mexican media worker to die this year. He had been editor for online news portal Guerrero al Instante in the southern state of Guerrero. He had been beaten to death, some sources suggest torture was used.

Friday morning (August 2) Edgar Alberto Nava was shot dead. He was administrator of the Facebook news page La Verdad de Zihuatanejo, also serving the state of Guerrero, and a city employee. He had received death threats over “some stories about criminals, who had felt uncomfortable with what he wrote,” said a former colleague to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The same day Jorge Ruíz Vázquez, reporter for El Gráfico de Xalapa in the state of Veracruz, was murdered. He, too, had received death threats. Last year he survived a gunfire attack after publishing a report on “diversion of public funds” in a local municipality, noted e-veracruz.mx (August 3). He and his family were to have been given security protection but those services were not provided.

In March 2017 Miroslava Breach, investigative reporter for national newspaper La Journada, was murdered outside her home. She reported on official corruption and organized crime in the State of Chihuahua. Her 2016 reporting on two mayoral candidates, both connected to organized crime groups, led to one withdrawing from the electoral race. Of the three named suspects, one was arrested, one found dead 18 months later and the last never apprehended.

La Journada revealed this past week (August 1) that a former municipal mayor in the State of Chihauhua had obtained audio recordings of telephone calls made to or by Miroslava Breach to discover her sources. The recordings were then given to Los Salazar, the assassination team for the infamous Sinaloa Cartel. The former mayor, Hugo Schultz, is currently running for a state office.

A protocol to protect journalists was established in Chihuahua in 2010. It has been inactive since May 2018, reported El Diario (August 2). The protocols have been widely criticised for calling upon journalists “not to ask incisive questions.” The State Human Rights Commission (CEDH) and publishers want to review the protocols and “adapt to current times.”

Legacy Chihuahua newspaper El Monitor de Parral announced this past week it is giving up its print edition. The online edition will continue without, though, any coverage of “police” or news “with a political slant,” said an editorial (July 31). The publication’s office was fire-bombed the night before. Such is the level of intimidation.

Security cameras had been damaged before the attack, reported El Diario de Chihuahua (July 31). The building owner said he would not press charges or, even, “figure out the cause.” El Monitor director Jorge Salayandía told Spanish daily El Pais (August 1) that he would make no statements or file any complaints. “It is not convenient for us to go after these people. I already received the message and that's it.”

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