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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| News photographer killed in Juarez -- UPDATEDx3 |
| 2010-09-18 |
| The Mexican daily La Polaka reports that the car being used by the photographers was owned by a unidentified son of a controversial human rights lawyer, Gustavao de la Rosa. The newspaper also suggests the murder may be an mistake by organized crime. La Polaka reports a "narcobanner" erected this morning in which La Linea claims responsibility for the murder and threatens other Mexican Federal police commanders "if the money is not returned." [Bangla Daily Star] Gunmen attacked two newspaper photographers Thursday in the drug war-torn border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing one and seriously wounding the other. Luis Carlos Santiago and Carlos Sanchez, of the Diario de Juarez, were driving to lunch when gunnies in two cars intercepted them and opened fire, newspaper director Pedro Torres told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. Santiago, 21, was killed and Sanchez was at death's door, Torres said. Torres said he did not know why the photographers were targeted. He said Santiago had just started working for the newspaper two weeks ago, and Sanchez was an intern. Mexican journalists are increasingly under siege from drug cartels seeking to control the flow of information. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog group, said in a recent report that at least 22 Mexican journalists have been killed since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon intensified a crackdown on drug cartels by deploying tens of thousands of troops and federal police across the country. Gang violence has since surged, claiming more than 28,000 lives as the splintered cartels fight with each other and attack on security forces, government officials and journalists. Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, has become one of the deadliest cities in the world amid a two-year-old turf war between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels. More than 4,000 people have been killed in the city of 1.3 million in last two years. In its report, the committee called for an urgent "full-scale federal response" to the dangers facing Mexican journalists, criticizing the government for failing to resolve most of the killings. Later Thursday, Torres, too, angrily criticized the impunity during an interview with Milenio Television. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Oopsies. Forgot about the archives restrictions. article can be found Here |
| Posted by: badanov 2010-09-18 10:05 |
| #1 A little background: El Diario has been involved in a little controversy itself. Last month following a shootout that took place at a Holiday Inn just across the street on Calle Juvenal Aragon, Diario wrote a letter to the Mexican national government demanding the Mexican Federal agents boarded in the Holiday Inn be quartered elsewhere. A day later the agents were moved but the newspaper was then beseiged for s short time by protesting former workers at the Holiday Inn. Background on the Holiday Inn shootout can be found here. Also, the reason why the Mexican Federal agents were moved to the hotel was they were part of a rotation of 300 agents who were moved out after months of sustained attacks by criminal gangs and accusations of civil rights violations, such as extortion and robbery. There is little in Juarez that would cause Juarez Cartel, La Linea, its armed wing and the Sinaloa Cartel to go after photojournalists. Not accusing the government of doing anything, except that the concept of rogue elements in Mexican law enforcement is not an unknown possibility. It has happened in the recent past. |
| Posted by: badanov 2010-09-18 10:00 |