15 Sep 11 | Americas, Mexico
The butchered bodies of a young man and a woman were found on Tuesday hanging from freeway overpass in Nuevo Laredo, Taumalipas on the US-Mexico border. Two hand-scribbled cardboard placards were left beside the bodies as a warning for Twitter and Facebook users reporting violent incidents online and through social media networks. The women’s body had been disembowelled and the ears and fingers were symbolically mutilated.
“This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the internet,” one sign said. “You better (expletive) pay attention. I’m about to get you.” The placards listed two specific sites which track drug crime Al Rojo Vivo and Blog del Narco and according to a spokesman from the state attorney’s office, the signs accused the unidentified victims of denouncing drug-related violence. The note was signed with the letter Z, suggesting the murders were the work of the Zetas, the organised crime syndicate which controls large parts of Taumalipas.
Maria Elena Meneses, social media expert at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, said that this new attack underscored the importance that social media has in Mexican regions with drug related violence. “People tweet and use Facebook in these areas because they feel abandoned by local government officials who cannot provide them with security, and the local news media which cannot inform,” she said. “To tweet is to mitigate uncertainty.”
A 2010 study on media and violence by the Fundacion de Periodismo de Investigacion (MEPI) found that the news media in the city of Nuevo Laredo exercised 100 per cent self censorship. In one incident, on the day that a mass grave was found with the bodies of 72 migrant workers, the Taumalipas daily El Mañana chose to run a front page story about a woman beating her young daughter instead. As drug cartels silence the press, locals have turned to social media to hear and share the news, an option it its clear that organised crime is now keen to shut-down.
06 Sep 11 | Index Index, minipost
The Cuban government this weekend revoked the press credentials of journalist Mauricio Vicent, correspondent for Spanish newspaper El País. Cuban authorities said that Vicent, who has been a reporter on the island for twenty years, had portrayed a “biased and negative image” of Cuba. Since 2007, the Cuban government has prohibited reporting by foreign correspondents from the Chicago Tribune, the BBC and Mexico’s El Universal.
30 Aug 11 | Americas, Mexico
Rumours about murdered reporter Humberto Millan Salazar have grown out of all proportion since his death last week. The journalist was kidnapped in the north-eastern state of Sinaloa, his body was found the same day. Millan Salazar was apparently killed just an hour after his kidnapping last Thursday, and had been executed with a 9mm gun. Friends and colleagues claim Millan Salazar was killed for political reasons. One website claims he was a supporter of the current governor of the state of Sinaloa, who belongs to a political party that last year defeated a candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) — the PRI has dominated Mexican politics for almost 70 years.
Sinaloa Governor Mario Lopez Valdez told reporters that the country’s Attorney General is sending three specialised investigators to investigate the case.
Millan Salazar was the director of the online magazine A-Discusion (Let’s Discuss) and wrote widely on government corruption. His last column was published on 23 August, a few days before his murder, and criticised the PRI’s President, Humberto Moreira, who had been accused of massive mismanagement of public funds in the northern state of Coahuila.
Sinaloa is home to the Sinaloa Cartel, a powerful drug gang led by kingpin Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman. Local sources claim Millan Salazar was caustic critic of local government but hardly touched on stories related to drug trafficking. A regional press group, Periodistas Siete de Julio has written an open letter asking for protection for the media. According to the letter, the murder of Millan Salazar demonstrates that there are sacred cows in the political spectrum of Sinaloa, things that cannot be talked or written about. A colleague has also announced that Millan left him a video where that contains tips about who could have murdered the reporter.
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission says 71 journalists have been killed and 14 have disappeared since 2000. This week, another columnist, Enrique Ramirez of the blog Fuentes Fidedignas, said he was leaving Sinaloa because of death threats.
25 Aug 11 | Americas, Mexico
[UPDATE] The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that Salazar was found dead early on Thursday 25 August in Sinaloa near the state capital, Culiacán, with a gunshot wound to the head.
Humberto Millán Salazar, a journalist from the north western state of Sinaloa, Mexico, was kidnapped yesterday. The 53 year old reporter has worked for local media for the last three decades. He is a reporter for a local website notoriously critical of Sinaloa’s local government. Salazar is also a radio broadcaster on Radio Formula, one of the top national radio networks in the country.
The Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Freedom of Speech Gustavo Salas said 13 journalists had disappeared across the country since 2000. Salazar’s disappearance comes only a month after the disappearance and murder of another reporter in the southern state of Veracruz.
A local journalist group Periodistas Siete de Junio released a drawing on its Facebook page demanding the return of Salazar. The group also asked local authorities to ask for federal authorities to help them in the search of Salazar who was an active participant of the group.
