Mexico

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Journalists and media outlets have continued to suffer frequent acts of violence and intimidation during the past six months. Three journalists were killed during this period for reasons related to their work, and two others went missing and have yet to be found. Seven journalists were physically assaulted. Impunity continues to be the common denominator in most of these attacks. A perfect example is the case of Alfredo Jiménez Mota, the slain reporter for El Imparcial in Sonora. The investigation has made no progress, and the authorities show no interest in solving the case. The climate of violence has fostered a dangerous pattern of self-censorship in the media when it comes to investigating and reporting on issues related to organized crime. Some state and municipal governments continue to employ the same old practices aimed at controlling the independent media through the use of government advertising and financial perks. Sadly, media owners themselves sometimes become complicit in condoning these practices and serving the interests of the political leaders currently in office. Another important issue is the demand by the Inter American Press Association that the federal government assume jurisdiction over crimes related to freedom of speech, and that these crimes be classified as serious offenses not subject to statutes of limitations. Other important developments are described below: In the last week of October, Víctor Rubén Hernández Guerrero, editor of the magazine Semana Ahora, filed a criminal complaint against a local business owner for physically assaulting and threatening him. The complaint alleged that the business owner confronted the journalist at a Mexico City restaurant over what he owner felt was negative news coverage about him. On November 29, the Mexican Supreme Court narrowly ruled that Lydia Cacho’s constitutional rights were not severely violated when she was detained on December 25 at the orders of Puebla Governor Mario Marín. Cacho, who lives and works in Cancún, Quintana Roo, was arrested after having published a book claiming that Governor Marín provided protection for a network of pedophiles. On December 8, Gerardo Israel García Pimentel of the Michoacán daily La Opinión was shot and killed in Uruapan, Michoacán. The journalist, who had reported on agriculture and occasionally on police matters, was shot 20 times. On December 19, a defendant was sentenced to 23 years in prison for carrying out the killing of Adolfo Sánchez Guzmán, a correspondent for Televisa in Veracruz. Sánchez Guzmán was shot and killed on November 30, 2006, after receiving death threats. On January 7, the owners of the Síntesis newspapers in Puebla, Hidalgo and Tlaxcala claimed that they were being persecuted by federal tax authorities, and that the president of the group of newspapers, Armando Prida Huerta, was being defamed. On January 9 and 16, Andrés Timoteo Morales, a correspondent for La Jornada newspaper in the state of Veracruz, was the victim of two suspicious thefts: In the first his laptop computer was taken along with a USB memory stick holding records of his investigations between 2004 and 2007. No arrests have been made in the case. On January 23 masked gunmen in Panuco, Veracruz, opened fire on journalist Octavio Soto Torres. The journalist, who is known in Veracruz for criticizing local authorities, was injured in the attack. On January 22, journalist Edi Daniel López Zacarías was physically assaulted by alleged members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Unión Juárez, Chiapas. On the same day, in Benito Juárez, Chiapas, reporters Juan Emilio Carrasco Hernández and Ruth Sansores were beaten by workers for the campaign of Gregorio Sánchez Martínez, a candidate for the PRI in local elections. On January 27, Cecilia Vargas Simón, a journalist for the newspaper La Verdad del Sureste in Villahermosa, Tabasco, received death threats on her cell phone. “You have received the message that we left at your house,” said the caller. “Stop writing. Don’t try to find us.” A few hours before this call, the journalist’s house was ransacked but nothing was taken. On January 30, journalist Carlos Huerta Muñoz of Norte newspaper in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, was forced to leave the country after receiving death threats. The newspaper decided to limit its coverage of drug trafficking as a result of the harassment — presumably by organized crime — to which it had been subjected. Similar threats were received by some local media outlets, such as the newspaper Diario de Juárez and Channel 44. On February 5, Francisco Ortiz Monroy, a correspondent for the national newspaper El Diario de México, was shot and killed in Ciudad Camargo as he was leaving city hall. On February 7, Bonifacio Cruz Santiago, publisher of the weekly newspaper El Real, and his son Alfonso Cruz Cruz, editor-in-chief of El Real, were killed while they were waiting for Chimalhuacán Mayor Raymundo Olivares Díaz. The federal Office of the Attorney General took over the case, but the investigation is still ongoing and the motive behind the crime has not yet been determined. On February 12 in the state of Michoacán, journalist Mauricio Estrada Zamora of the regional newspaper La Opinión in Apatzingán went missing. His most recent articles addressed the lack of security, including one that implicated police officers. Previously, Juan Pablo Solís, an owner of radio and television stations, was abducted in Michoacán on December 7. His whereabouts are still unknown. On February 24, Gabriel Hugo Córdova, a photographer for Notiver newspaper in Veracruz, accused members of the Federal Preventive Police of abducting him, holding him for more than five hours, and subjecting him to physical and psychological torture. The police, meanwhile, filed a criminal complaint against Córdova for “insulting authority.”

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