FronteraNorteSur

Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, November 20, 2004
Article by Sergio Chapa —

Violence and censorship have had a chilling effect on investigative reporting over the past few years along the U.S.-Mexico border, a group of journalists said Friday at a bi-national conference.

"Here you trade exclusive stories for safety," said Ninfa Cantu Deándar, adjunct director of the El Mañana newspaper of Nuevo Laredo. Cantu said when her newspaper's editor Roberto Mora was allegedly killed by drug traffickers March 19, she immediately called the Univision television station in Laredo to help them cover his death.

"Even though we are competitors, it is safer to form an alliance with television and other newspapers to help the public and keep them informed," Cantu said in Spanish.

Police blamed Mora's death on a homosexual quarrel, but an independent commission later revealed their prime suspect was tortured and coerced into a confession.

More than 50 journalists — from Los Angeles to Matamoros, Mexico — met Friday at the Meeting of the Border to commemorate Mora and 13 other reporters killed covering crime and other issues along the Mexican border during the last 10 years.

Leonarda Reyes, with Mexico's non-profit Center for Journalism and Public Ethics, said violence from organized crime — coupled with government and corporate censorship — has produced a silencing effect on reporters on both sides of the border.

"Mexico is the most dangerous country for journalism," she told an audience in Spanish during a presentation. "We see threats made to reporters, police oppression, pressure to reveal sources and now … defamation lawsuits."

In 2004, four Mexican reporters have been killed, with three of them murdered in cities along the southern U.S. border. "In many cases, reporters aren't even investigating something serious," Reyes said. "They just make people nervous by asking questions."

Inter American Press Association board member Robert Rivard said the Mexican federal government has done little to prevent the deaths of journalists or punish those responsible.

"The Fox administration has not done anything on these three cases," he said. "He (Fox) does not have power along the border."

Maria Eugenia Guerra, with the Laredo-based tabloid LareDos, said drug-trafficking violence has moved from the streets of Nuevo Laredo to the suburbs of Laredo in recent years.

Guerra said many drug dealers now own homes in Laredo, and violence has followed them with a string of recent shooting deaths.

"The problems of the border can't be solved by one agency on one side of the river," she said.

Apart from censorship or fear of violence, Laredo Morning Times Editor Diana Fuentes said most newspapers along the border do not have the time or the money to allow reporters to investigate smuggling, crime, corruption or the environment.

"Many big papers like the New York Times can afford to send someone to work on a single story for weeks, but they come and leave. We have to stay," she said.

Fuentes said another obstacle to reporters was obtaining reliable and accurate statistics from officials on both sides of the border. Mexican officials, she said, often ask for money to release information whether it is accurate or not.

"We shouldn't have to pay for public information," she said.

Mexican Journalists Killed in 2004 (Source: Inter American Press
Association):

March 19: Roberto Javier Mora Garcia (Editorial Director, El Mañana) -Nuevo
Laredo, Tamaulipas

June 22: Francisco Ortiz Franco (Publisher, El Zeta) -Tijuana, Baja
California

Sept. 1: Francisco Arratia Saldierna (Newspaper Columnist) -Matamoros,
Tamaulipas

Sept. 8: Leodegario Aguilera Lucas (Editor, Mundo Políto) -Acapulco,
Guerrero

* * *

Source: Brownsville Herald, November 20, 2004. Article by Sergio Chapa,
schapa@brownsvilleherald.com.

Greg Bloom, Outreach Coordinator
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico
Email address: gbloom@nmsu.edu
Phone: (505) 646-6817

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