06 Jun 11 | Americas, Mexico
The ongoing violence against Mexico’s media workers means there is little surprise when another journalist is found dead. Twelve journalists have been killed in Mexico in the last 18 months, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). But the recent discovery of the body of Noel Lopez Holguin marks the first recent case where the state can prove direct link between the murder of a journalist and drug traffickers. Holgiun disappeared on 8 March. His body was found in a shallow grave in a hamlet near Jaltipan, his hometown, after police arrested a local drug boss who is part of the Zetas, a violent local drug cartel.
Gang leader Alejandro Castro Chirinos, nicknamed El Dragón, confessed to killing the journalist — Holguin’s camera had been found in his possession.
Holguin’s March disappearance followed the February kidnapping of Fabian Santiago Hernandez, owner of La Verdad of Jaltipan, the newspaper where Holguin worked.
The newspaper published several stories condemning drug cartels and the local police who collude with them.
Hernandez was kidnapped after he wrote an open letter to President Felipe Calderon, published on FaceBook, denouncing the local police. His son was also kidnapped, but both of them were released unharmed a few days later. Jaltipan is a known Zetas strong hold.
20 Apr 11 | Americas, Mexico
Community radio station have grown more popular in Mexico in the last few years creating conflicts with private radio networks. It is expected new laws which will either expand or retract the operating room for these low wattage radio stations will be included in an upcoming revision of television and radio legislation in Mexico. In the last few months, private radio station owners have lobbied the Mexican Congress about the increasing popularity of the community radio stations.
In early April, the Chamber of Deputies organised a forum on the challenges posed by the community radio movement, which was attended by both friends and foes of the community radios. During one of the panels at the event, representatives of Mexico’s Radio and Television Chamber (CIRT), which represents major radio station owners, asked the Mexican government to ensure there was no uneven competition between private radio stations and community radios. Emilio Nassar of the CIRT said that after subsidies, the community radios could be better situated economically than the private for profit stations.
Nassar insisted that “the independence with which the industry works today in Mexico, allows plurality, content diversity and editorial autonomy. Everything can be said on radio”. So why are the community radios necessary, he asked rhetorically.
Back in December 2009, radio station owners used a full page newspaper advertisement to argue that permitting the operation of community radios could produce a Chavez-style government in Mexico. A claim rejected by AMARC-Mexico, an NGO that promotes community radio. Community radio stations have been targeted by politicians in the regions too. In January, the government of Veracruz detained a radio director for operating his Radio Diversidad without a license. A detention that prompted the Human Rights Commission for Mexico City to express concern about the “criminalisation of community radios”. A fear echoed by many working in community radio as politicians debate their future.
12 Jan 11 | Americas, Mexico
The unrelenting violence in Mexico has provoked three well-known Mexican cartoonists — Eduardo del Rio “Rius”, Jose Hernandez and Patricio Ortiz — to launch their own civic Twitter offensive.
Since yesterday, the hashtag #NomasSangre hit the Twitter waves in Mexico. Other hashtags like #RedMexico and #losqueremosvivos, were launched to promote mass reaction to violence in Mexico. #RedMexico is new, while #losqueremosvivos was launched when four Mexican journalists were kidnapped by drug traffickers last June and were lated released because of the public outcry. But what makes the new hashtag interesting is that it is backed by three of the most important cartoonists in a country where the political cartoon is de riguer. Important reporters and analysts have changed the profiles on Facebook and twitter avatars to the one created by the three cartoonists.
“There is a lot of unhappiness in the country. A lot f people are fed up and desperate but feel impotent”, Rius, one of Mexico´s most important cartoonists, told the weekly Proceso. It could not be phrased better. A recent poll determined that 60 percent of all Mexicans feel that last year was one of the most violent years in the four year drug war declared by President Felipe Calderon.
Mexico’s Christmas and new year were marked with grisly crimes. One was the abduction on 31 December of a woman accused of being a kidnapper who was herself grabbed from police as she was taken from a women´s prison to a hospital for a checkup. Her body was later found, half-naked and hanging from an overpass in the city of Monterrey.
This week, police found 15 decapitated bodies in the resort town of Acapulco.
10 Jan 11 | Americas, Mexico
Mexico’s Roman Catholic church has taken a new target. Late last week church spokespeople called on Mexicans to stop following a cult that promotes the worship of death, which they call Saint Death. Mexico City Archdiocese spokesman Hugo Valdemar said the cult was “against Christianity and a chosen cult by organised crime.” His remarks came after a Santa Muerte bishop, David Romeo Guillen, was detained and charged with being the money man for a gang that specialised in kidnapping in Mexico City.
According to newspaper reports, Guillen admitted to being part of the kidnapping ring and offered police to collaborate with them and provide information on other kidnapping rings. Mexico has approximately 8,000 kidnappings a year, according to security consulting firm Multisistemas de Seguridad Industrial.
The Santa Muerte is a macabre sight that adorns altars across the country, complete with offerings. It is known to be followed by drug traffickers and criminals. The church has about 2m followers in Mexico, and an undetermined number of faithful in the United States, where immigrants have built about 15 churches dedicated to the cult.
The figure worshipped by its followers is a skeleton with a hooded robe. The colour of the robe may vary.
The first time Mexicans learnt about the figure was in 1998, when Daniel Arizmendi López, a well known kidnapper who was known as the “mochaorejas”, or the ear chopper, and police discovered an entire shrine to the Santa Muerte, where he prayed daily for protection.
There are people who think the cult goes back to the conquest, but some analysts say, the number of followers is mainly among people in prison, the young and drug traffickers.
Nevertheless, a group of followers has also conducted public demonstrations to protest the detention of Bishop Guillen. One follower, who said she had been a devout of the church for 25 years said the authorities should provide more evidence as to whether Guillen was really guilty.
