Impunity Drives the Beast That Keeps Killing Journalists Across Mexico Andalusia Knoll - teleSUR English
go to original January 23, 2016

In Mexico, Journalism Can be a Very Dangerous Career Choice (teleSUR English)

In his humble home in Medellin de Bravo, Veracruz, Jorge Sanchez rumbles through boxes and pulls out 17 years of editions of La Union, a community newspaper his father Moises founded. The headlines are as local as you can get, flooded streets with too many potholes and too few sidewalks, lack of garbage removal, and reports on an increasing wave of violence in this town on the outskirts of the metropolitan Port of Veracruz.

Rising from the dirt floors of Jorge’s home are massive walls with thick concertina wire and security cameras. One year ago an armed commando rolled up to kidnap his father right in front of his family and young grandchildren. Jorge sought out help with local police who didn’t even feign to search for the kidnapped journalist and failed to preserve the crime scene. When family and colleagues started protesting, the government was forced to respond and actually look for Moises Sanchez. Twenty-three days later, his body was found in a clandestine grave, decapitated and beyond recognition. He became the 11th journalist to be assassinated in the state of Veracruz since 2010, when the current Governor Javier Duarte began his term.

A year later, three more Veracruzan journalists have been murdered along with three others in other regions of Mexico. The majority of Moises’ kidnappers, murderers and intellectual authors roam free. Adding insult to injury, the government has declared that he wasn’t targeted for being a journalist since he primarily made a living as a taxi driver. A week before Moises was kidnapped he had been threatened by the local mayor who it is believed had ordered the hit on him, as Moises was often critical of his governing. The mayor was released from prison after he got a legal stay to prevent his incarceration. Two local police officers are awaiting charges of omission for not responding to the family’s calls for aid and one officer for confessing to the crime.

Now, Jorge continues publishing La Union with the support of local journalists and colleagues of his father. Jorge recognizes the risks associated with his activism and his family lives under the constant threat of violence.

Read the rest at teleSUR

Related: Mexico Ranked as One of the World's Deadliest Places for Journalists (teleSUR)

Related: Journalism, Tamaulipas-Style: Learning to Keep Quiet (El Daily Post)

Related: Endangered Mexican Journalists Seek Asylum in U.S. (CNN)

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