03 Nov 11 | News and features
Murdered 3 November 2008
Reporter, Royal TV – Punjab, Pakistan
Join us in demanding justice for Abdul Razzak Johra, 45, dragged by six armed men from his home in the Mianwali district of Punjab, Pakistan on 3 November 2008 and shot — a day after his TV report on local drug trafficking was aired nationally. Colleagues said Johra had received threats telling him to stop covering the issue. Police acknowledged the killing but took no evident steps to investigate. In 2011, the tragic toll of dead and injured journalists and media workers placed Pakistan ahead of Iraq and Mexico as the world’s most dangerous country for reporters and media professionals.
Take action and send a letter to the authorities demanding an immediate and open investigation into this case here
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
02 Nov 11 | News and features
MURDERED 2 NOVEMBER 2005
Journalist, “El Tiempo de Durango” – Durango, Mexico
Join us in demanding justice for crime reporter José Bladimir Antuna Garcían, 39, who was found murdered on 2 November 2009 after he was ambushed by five armed men in the Mexican city of Durango on his way to work. Attached to his body was a note reading, “This happened to me for giving information to the military and for writing too much.” Antuna had been investigating corruption and police crime and had been receiving threatening calls, some from the powerful drug cartel Los Zetas. He reported the threats to the state attorney general’s office; they were never followed up.
Take action and send a letter to the authorities demanding an immediate and open investigation into this case here
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
28 Oct 11 | Americas, Mexico
New reports indicate the murder of two female journalists in Mexico City in September was carried out by a group of Santeria followers, the voodoo-influenced religion.
Online magazine Reporte Indigo, which had access to the investigation, claims Marcela Yarce, 45, and Rocio Gonzalez, 48, were strangled to death after they sought to exchange pesos for dollars with Óscar Jair Quiñonez Emmert, alias “Ogún”, who worked in a parking establishment in downtown Mexico City, near the offices of the magazine Contralinea, where Yarce worked.
The men are reported to have beaten and killed the two women in order to steal one million pesos (5,700 GBP), which the pair wanted to exchange for US dollars. Exchange rates have been fluctuating in Mexico, and according to police reports, the two women wanted a better rate. Both bodies were found nude and there was evidence of sexual assault.
Contralinea replied angrily to the release of the police report, charging that it did double damage to the memory of the two murdered journalists because it implied they had engaged in illegal activities.
According to the magazine report Emmert confessed to the murder. He told the Public Ministry of the Attorney General of the Federal Distritct how he contacted a group of Santeria followers to help him round up the women. The group included his “godfather” or padrino, Lázaro Hernández, known in the world of Santeria as “El Padrino Laza” and his 16-year-old son. The crime was committed on 31 August, when the women contacted Emmert to complete the financial transaction. After the murders, the group of men had a spiritual bath with herbs to get rid of negative vibrations, according to the court records. The men divided the loot and spent it on cars, a sound system, mobile phones and a family vacation in the resort town of Mazatlan.
Santeria is on the rise in Mexico, in the last decade it has begun to overtake traditional shamanism that dates from ancient Mexico. While the rites appeal to Mexicans of all walks of life, many of its followers are youths from a low-income background who wear santeria beads as a necklace or a bracelet.
26 Sep 11 | Americas, Mexico
Mexican organised drug cartels have again threatened social network users using a mutilated body. In the second incident this month, the decapitated and tortured body of a woman was found dumped in a public park in Nuevo Laredo, Taumalipas, a city on the US-Mexico border.
The body was discovered in the early morning hours of Saturday, September 24, with a hand scribbled cardboard sign left next to it. It said “Nuevo Laredo en Vivo and social networking sites, I’m The Laredo Girl, and I’m here because of my reports, and yours. For those who don’t want to believe, this happened to me because of my actions, for believing in the army and the navy. Thank you for your attention, respectfully, Laredo Girl…ZZZZ.””
The victim was identified by Morelos Canseco, the interior secretary of northern Tamaulipas, as Marisol Macias Castaneda, a newsroom manager for the Nuevo Laredo local daily newspaper Primera Hora. The newspaper has not confirmed her title, but it is believed Macias Castaneda was targeted for her contribution to social networking sites.
Apparently Macias Castro contributed reports on drug violence to the blog, Nuevo Laredo EnVivo using the handle “Laredo Girl”. ZZZZ is the signature of Mexico’s most dangerous organised crime group. The Zetas started in Taumalipas as bodyguards for the Cartel del Golfo, an organised crime group from this area. The initials, Zetas, referred to a paramilitary group that initiated its activities in the northern state of Taumalipas, first as an enforcement group for the traditional drug cartel, Cartel Del Golfo, and then toppled the leadership for the Cartel Del Golfo, and is now moving its group that can work in Mexico, the United States and Central America.
Two weeks ago, two Twitter users were also attacked and killed for using the internet to report on drug related violence.
