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 Editorials | Issues | November 2006 
Slayings of Journalists Tripled in 2006 in Mexico
 Andrea Sosa Cabrios - DPA
| | 2006 is already a bloody year for the media in Mexico with seven journalists killed in the country since January in attacks mostly linked to organized crime. |
2006 is already a bloody year for the media in Mexico with seven journalists killed in the country since January in attacks mostly linked to organized crime.
With Tuesday’s execution-style slaying of Roberto Marcos Garcia in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, four reporters have been killed in just the last three weeks in Mexico.
The Washington-based Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the Organization of American States (OAS) said on Tuesday - hours before the latest shooting - that six journalists had been murdered in Mexico in 2006, and another reporter remained missing.
In most cases, no suspects are ever charged.
Around 60 journalists have been killed since 1982 in Mexico in cases related to their work.
Two reporters were slain last year in Mexico, and a third, Alfredo Jimenez Mota, disappeared while investigating drug trafficking.
According to the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), Mexico ranks with Venezuela and Colombia among Latin America’s most dangerous countries for journalists.
The offices of newspapers in cities including Nuevo Laredo and Cancun have been targeted with grenade attacks.
Ever-increasing violence by drug traffickers is a key factor in violence against journalists, but Mexican media have also been threatened this year in relation to political unrest including the violence in the southern state of Oaxaca.
Tuesday’s slaying of Garcia - who covered crime and police for the magazine Testimonio in the city of Veracruz - again set off alarms.
Killing fields
He was riding a motorbike on a road between Veracruz and the town of Alvarado when he was struck by a car. As he lay on the ground, he was riddled by at least 10 bullets, according to police.
Five days earlier, the former chief editor of the daily Excelsior, Jose Manuel Nava, was found stabbed to death in his apartment in Mexico City.
On November 10, police found the chief editor of the local daily Despertar de la Costa dead in a hotel in the Pacific seaside resort of Zihuatanejo. The editor, Misael Tamayo, had published information on drug trafficking.
On October 27, US journalist Brad Will, a photographer for Indymedia, died after being shot twice during unrest in the provincial capital Oaxaca.
Police arrested two city employees as suspects, but after a series of investigations, authorities said that Will could have been killed by leftist groups in an attempt to “internationalize” a long-running standoff in Oaxaca.
Following the deaths of Nava and Tamayo, the OAS Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression issued a statement deploring the slayings and calling for investigations.
The ink was barely dry on the document when Garcia was shot in Veracruz.
“The Office of the Special Rapporteur urges the Mexican authorities to investigate these killings promptly and effectively in order to duly sanction those responsible and to determine whether these crimes are related to their journalistic activities,” the OAS organ said.
According to the office, other journalists slain this year in Mexico are Jaime Arturo Olvera on March 9 in Michoacan, Ramiro Tellez on March 10 in Tamaulipas and Enrique Perea Quintanilla on August 9 in Chihuahua. Rafael Ortiz has been missing since July 8.
Gonzalo Marroquin, chairman of IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, said in September during the panel’s meeting in Mexico that the “irrational violence” of organized crime is a ferocious threat to the Mexican press.
“Organized crime in Mexico continues to claim lives and consciences,” said Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz, IAPA’s committee vice chairman for Mexico.
He said that on the country’s border to the United States, where drug cartels are most active, unfettered journalism “is an endangered species.” |
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