Mexico Journalists Sign Narco-Violence Coverage Pact

What is it that they say about strength and numbers?
40 Mexican media groups that represent more than 700 newspapers, television and radio stations gathered for what looked like a very formal ceremony yesterday to sign an agreement to a set of guidelines concerning their coverage of “criminal violence” in Mexico.
This is unprecedented in two ways. First, it had never been done before because, frankly, it was never needed in the past. And second, it flies in the face of the intimidation, threats and murder that journalists and communications professionals in general have been subject to.
While drug wars rage across Mexico little if anything has been reported in the Mexican media for fear of extreme reprisals – even government officials have been reluctant to admit to the drug cartel siege of many Mexican cities (but that in itself is not so hard to believe). This compact could be a watershed, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that coverage of the drug wars will change.

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Posted by Sylvia Lopez

Mexico protects Human Rights

By Ricardo Alday We cannot agree more with you editorial on Friday "Mexico needs to be a Priority," in that no other bilateral relationship is more important for the scrutiny and prosperity of the United States than the one with Mexico. To read more, click here Posted by Diana Rosendo

The Drug Wars Are Not What They Used To Be.

I remember the day they shot Cuco Reyes Pruneda. Or at least I remember the headlines that Sunday morning. I was on my way to buy Sunday morning barbacoa at a place around the corner from our house in downtown Nuevo Laredo; I must have been ten or eleven years old, plotting in my head how I would manage to scrounge the ojo, my favorite part, from everyone else at the table. The headline was atop a stack of still bundled newspapers -el Correo, el Diario, el Ciuidadano, el Mañana-I don’t remember which. “El Cuco Acribillado,” it read in bold, red letters. There was no need for more description, everyone in town knew who el Cuco was. His family, the Reyes-Martinez clan, was waging a war, defending their “plaza” over control of the drug smuggling routes against a Texan named Fred Gomez Carrazco. This was a bold hit and even a 10 year old understood the ramifications. Those were different times, though. The city wasn’t under siege. The criminals killed each other, but they had the decency to have their shootouts in some remote part of the rural edges of the city. Town folk were only witness to headlines and very graphic pictures of the aftermath. Cuco was killed by cops avenging the death of two of their own, it’s said that American agents helped spring the trap that killed him. Things are much different now in my childhood home. The drug war has spread into the streets and into people’s homes. I have family and friends who have fled across the border, into Laredo, Texas, for safety and I haven’t been to visit my old haunts in years. It’s gotten that bad.

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[posted by Sylvia Lopez]

Juarez Police Officer Denied U.S. Asylum

Jose Alarcon, 27, was a cop in one of the world’s most lawless cities. Wounded in a gun battle with drug gangs in Juarez in 2008, he survived only to see his partner killed in another gunfight. When Alarcon refused bribes from the city’s drug lords, he knew it was a matter of days before they killed him, too. Alarcon, his wife and two young children fled to El Paso to seek asylum in the United States.

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[posted by Sylvia Lopez]

Shedding grim light on Juarez darkness

by Richard Ruelas - Mar. 8, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic


The stark, unrelenting violence in Juarez, the Mexican city across the border from El Paso, could be captured only in a documentary, says Charlie Minn, director of the current "8 Murders a Day." It is the kind of horror story that does not fit in the world of make-believe.

Posted by: Diana Rosendo

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Border chief: Agency has to understand cartels

The U.S. Border Patrol must understand the capabilities and vulnerabilities of violent smuggling cartels to have any hope of dismantling them, the agency's chief said Wednesday.

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posted by Flor Parra

Napolitano touts safety of US border communities

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday that U.S. communities on the border with Mexico are safer than most Americans believe, but also warned Mexican drug cartels they'll be "met by an overwhelming response" should they move north.

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posted by Flor Parra