On March 4, a reporter and camera operator for Milenio Televisión were kidnapped in Reynosa, Tamaulipas state (northeastern Mexico) while covering a wave of violence caused by a dispute between two of the regions rival drug trafficking groups. The journalists were later released with a warning, “Don’t come here to heat things up.”
Ciro Gómez Leyva, Assistant Editorial Director for the Milenio Group, who sent the crew to Reynosa, wrote in a column: “Every day in more regions in Mexico it is impossible to do reporting. Journalism is dead in Reynosa, etcetera. I have nothing else to say.”
“In the past 14 days, at least eight Mexican journalists have been abducted in Reynosa”, Alfredo Corchado reports. “One died after a severe beating, according to reports that could not be independently verified. Two were released by their captors. The rest are missing.”
