Newspapers
An evil few dare write in Nuevo Laredo
By Mary Lee Grant
Feb 5, 2007, 09:07

These days El Manana's newsroom is protected by a bulletproof barrier, but its effect is largely symbolic, as much as anything a barrier of silence, a statement of what can't be said. The atmosphere among reporters and residents of this Mexican town of about 500,000 is still one of fear and wariness.

Reporters say they have given up reporting on narcotics trafficking and the government and police corruption that accompany it.

The shooting at El Manana’s newsroom is one in a series of violent acts against journalists along the border, and threats of more are ever-present, making it impossible to report the news with any sense of accuracy.

“It is not just the narco-wars we can’t cover,” one reporter tells Media Life. “The problem is that drug trafficking affects all aspects of life, so we have to be careful when we cover the police, government, business-- everything. It doesn’t matter if you work for TV , newspapers, or radio, we all practice self-censorship now. It is the only way to survive.”

It's a story both cartels want kept out of the news, and to that end they have infiltrated newsrooms with spies in order to alert them to any unfavorable coverage that might be brewing. Some journalists are said to work for the Gulf Cartel’s private army of mercenaries, the Zetas.

Border reporters declined to talk on the record for this story, saying that to be quoted would put their lives at risk.

The shoot-out at El Manana occurred after the paper ran an article linking a federal agent with the Sinaloa Cartel. One employee was killed when men fired automatic weapons into the newsroom, and Orozco Tey, a crime reporter who frequently covered the drug trade, was shot in the back and abdomen several times. He is paralyzed and is living in hiding with his family.

A month later, Ramiro Tellez Contreras, a radio reporter and switchboard operator for the police station, was shot to death while leaving his home in the early morning. Tellez, who worked for Exa 95.7 FM,  had been receiving threats from the cartels before he was murdered.

Another radio journalist, Guadalupe Garcia Escamilla, was shot at least nine times outside her office in 2005. She died a week later.

And in 2004, Roberto Javier Mora Garcia, the editorial director of El Manana, was stabbed at least 25 times outside his house. He was found dead beside his car in the early morning. He had written in an editorial: “If we don't want these forces to govern our lives, we first must gather the courage to re-establish control by the citizens and not by the criminals."

The attacks have gotten the message across. Immediately after the El Manana attack, its editors said the paper would cut back on its coverage of the drug wars to ensure its reporters’ safety. The paper had already trimmed its coverage after its editor's murder two years earlier.

Now a blanket of silence prevails in Nuevo Laredo.

“In September, there was a big battle between federal forces and the drug gangs in one of the fanciest neighborhoods of town,” relates a reporter.

“They were fighting with assault rifles and grenades for hours. Several people died. The press reported it in the United States. But in Nuevo Laredo, no one did.”

Violence against journalists is a problem throughout Mexico, and watchdog groups claim it has become the most dangerous country for reporters in Latin America. Eight journalists were murdered in Mexico since January of last year and three more disappeared. Since 2004, 13 journalists have been killed.

The border seems to the most dangerous area of all. In Nuevo Laredo even the police chief was assassinated, just hours after being sworn in to office and declaring he would fight to quash the battling cartels. Only two months later, the official who oversaw public security for the city was gunned down in broad daylight outside of City Hall.

In Sonora, across the border from Arizona, reporter Alfredo Jimenez Mota disappeared in April 2005 after meeting a source in connection with an investigation of the Beltrán Leyva and Enríquez Parra families’ alleged connection with drug trafficking in the state. He also had written about links between police and gangsters. He's presumed dead.

Since his death, 63 people in Sonora have been murdered by contract killers employed by criminal organizations, according to statistics compiled by El Imparcial, the paper for which he worked.   

Border journalists frequently are threatened and even kidnapped. 

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, many reporters are repeatedly abducted, sometimes for just a few hours. But they seldom report the crimes because of fear of reprisals or a belief that government officials or law enforcement are themselves behind the crime.

Sometimes the narcos seem intent only on impressing and intimidating.

One source reports being at dinner at a fancy restaurant in Reynosa, a Mexican city along the Texas border, when a famous drug lord strutted in, told the waiters to lock the doors, and ordered an elaborate meal prepared for himself and his cronies. No one was allowed to leave while he ate, but he picked up the tab for everyone in the restaurant.

Just days after the attack on El Manana, then-Mexican President Vicente Fox appointed a special prosecutor to investigate crimes against journalists. Newly elected president Felipe Calderon, who took office Dec. 1, is expected to keep the position intact, but journalists say the problem of corruption is so large it is hard to hope for much change.

“This whole country is ruled by the drug traffickers,” one reporter says.

“Even the highest officials won’t cross them. So why should we journalists be exempt? Even the federal government can’t control them. The truth is, we have become a narco-democracy. Our country’s ruling elite is not its business class or its politicians but the drug lords.”