In a nation already accustomed to a high-levels of crime-related violence, the recent activities of a little known anarchist group have left Mexicans baffled. The explosion of a parcel bomb sent to a nanotechnology professor at the prestigious...
CATEGORY: Americas
Journalists fleeing violence in Veracruz
The recent murders of three journalists have spread fear throughout the small community of night police reporters in the coastal city of Veracruz, southern Mexico. All three victims worked for Notiver, a tabloid known for its lurid crime...
State PR exercise fails
Last May, the national television network Televisa transmitted a new series about the Mexican federal police. El Equipo is similar to US crime dramas like CSI which are popular in Mexico. It was shown nightly for three weeks, with each episode...
Murder of Facundo Cabral a blow to free speech
The recent murder of Argentine singer Facundo Cabral in Guatemala is an incredible tragedy. Cabral, a pacifist and one of Latin America's most celebrated protest singers, left his country in 1973 for almost a decade after a military junta took over...
Drug wars threatening Mexican crime reporting
The back to back murders of two prominent crime journalists have cast a dark shadow over Mexican press freedom. Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco, 55, a former deputy director and well established crime columnist for the newspaper Notiver of Veracuz was...
A poet is Mexico’s new voice against drug violence
Javier Sicilia led 200,000 people to Mexico City's El Zocalo plaza in May in a National March for Justice and against Impunity. Just last week he led hundreds of others people in a Citizens Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity, he called it a...
Journalist’s body located after drug boss confesses
The ongoing violence against Mexico's media workers means there is little surprise when another journalist is found dead. Twelve journalists have been killed in Mexico in the last 18 months, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)....
Pirate community radio operators fined and jailed
Community radio stations have had a difficult time in Latin America in the last four years. In Mexico, Brazil and Chile, community radios have been penalised for operating without a government license, according to Aleida Callejas, local director...
Citizen journalism fills a void
Mexico City is the third largest city in the world. And like every major city, its citizens have a love hate relationship with governability. But in the 2010 barometer of the Americas, conducted by Vanderbilt University, 40 per cent of Mexican...
Colombian reporters to hold silent protest
Violence against journalists in Colombia has escalated recently, with paramilitary groups issuing threats against reporters all over the country. The threats are worrisome for a country, where drug traffickers, corrupt politicians, leftist...
