FEBRUARY 7, 2005
Posted: February 11, 2005
Jorge Cardona Villegas, Televisa
ATTACKED
Cardona, who covers crime in the northern state of Nuevo León for the Televisa network affiliate in the city of Monterrey, was attacked at his home. Since then, he has gone into hiding.
At around 5:50 a.m., Cardona's house and his car were hit by several rounds of bullets, allegedly fired by one armed assailant, Assistant State Prosecutor Aldo Fasci Zuazua told CPJ. Cardona, who lives alone and was sleeping at the time, stayed on the floor until the police came and was not injured. The police found more than 50 bullet cases from a machine gun.
Televisa Monterrey News Director Juan Francisco Cobos said that neither Cardona nor the TV station staff had received any threats.
Cobos believes that the attack may have come in retaliation for a two-part report broadcast on February 3 and 4. Cardona reported on the cases of several kidnapped or missing U.S. citizens in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, in the state of Tamaulipas across from the Texas city of Laredo.
Relatives of the victims alleged in the report that local authorities were involved in the kidnappings and disappearances. Cardona also interviewed a former member of the Los Zetas paramilitary group, which allegedly includes army defectors who are said to provide intelligence and protection to the Tamaulipas-based Gulf drug cartel. Cardona's report concluded that Los Zetas was also involved in the kidnappings, Cobos said.
State authorities have begun an investigation into the attack on Cardona. The assistant state prosecutor told CPJ his office was examining two motives: the journalist's work, or personal reasons.
The reporter is currently at an undisclosed location, Cobos said.
APRIL 2, 2005
Posted October 17, 2005
Alfredo Jiménez Mota, El Imparcial
MISSING
Jiménez, a crime reporter for the Hermosillo-based daily, disappeared from his home in the city of Hermosillo in the northwestern state of Sonora at about 9 p.m. on April 2. That night, he called a colleague at El Imparcial to say that he was going to meet with one of his contacts, according to Juan F. Healy, president and general director of the daily. Jiménez told his colleague that the contact was "very nervous." No one has heard from Jiménez since that call.
Jiménez, 25, lives alone in Hermosillo and has been working with El Imparcial for the last six months. Police said that no belongings were taken and nothing was disturbed.
Recent articles of Jiménez have investigated drug-trafficking families in the region. Sonora prosecutors have linked his disappearance with his journalistic work.
According to CPJ's recent research, Mexico's northern states have become one of the most hazardous places in Latin America for journalists to practice their profession. Journalists like Jiménez, who cover crime and drug trafficking, are particularly vulnerable.
APRIL 5, 2005
Posted: May 17, 2005
Dolores Guadalupe García Escamilla, Stereo 91
KILLED—CONFIRMED
Crime reporter García Escamilla died April 16 from injuries she suffered in an April 5 shooting in front of her radio station in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. García Escamilla was hospitalized in critical condition after being struck by nine shots to the abdomen, pelvis, arms, and legs as she arrived at work, Stereo 91 News Director Roberto Gálvez Martínez told CPJ. She hosted the program "Punto Rojo" for Stereo 91 XHNOE in Nuevo Laredo, a violence-plagued city of 500,000 in the state of Tamaulipas.
The attack occurred about a half hour after the station aired a report by García Escamilla on the slaying of a Nuevo Laredo defense lawyer, Gálvez said. An unidentified assailant approached García Escamilla after she parked her car in front of the station just before 8 a.m., firing 14 times in all, the Mexican press reported.
García Escamilla, an experienced reporter who had worked for several media outlets in the city, had covered crime for Stereo 91 since 2001. Gálvez told CPJ that García Escamilla's car was torched in early January in front of her house. He said no motive was established for the arson, although press reports speculated that it stemmed from her crime reporting. García Escamilla filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office but no action was taken.
APRIL 8, 2005
Posted: April 13, 2005
Raúl Gibb Guerrero, La Opinión
KILLED—UNCONFIRMED
Gibb Guerrero, 53, owner and director of the daily newspaper in the eastern state of Veracruz, was killed in an apparent ambush in the city of Poza Rica at about 10 p.m., according to local and international press reports. Four unidentified gunmen fired at least 15 shots at Gibb Guerrero as he was driving home to Papantla, according to those reports.
Struck by eight shots, three to his head, Gibb Guerrero lost control of his vehicle and crashed. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The assailants fled in two cars, according to the local press.
Earlier that night, Gibb Guerrero was in the city of Martínez de la Torre, where a new edition of La Opinión was being launched, the Mexican press reported. Gibb Guerrero had received anonymous death threats days before the attack, but he didn't express great concern over them, a La Opinión editor told CPJ on condition of anonymity.
José Luis Vasconcelos, a deputy prosecutor for the organized crime division of the attorney general's office, was quoted by Reuters as saying that Gibb Guerrero "had written directly about the Gulf Cartel and the whole corruption network they have. It clearly appears to be drug traffickers that have been plaguing us."
State authorities are investigating the murder with the help of more than 30 federal agents, state prosecutor Jorge Yunis Manzanares told CPJ. No motive has been determined; authorities said they have not ruled out personal or professional possibilities. CPJ will continue to monitor the case.
MAY 10, 2005
Posted: May 17, 2005
Pedro Pérez Natividad, Primera Hora
HARASSED
An unidentified assailant hurled a homemade bomb into a truck belonging to Pérez, editorial director with the daily Primera Hora, in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. No one was injured in the attack.
Around midnight, an unknown attacker broke the back window of the journalist's truck and threw in a firebomb, according to local press reports. The truck, which was parked in front of the Perez's house, sustained serious damages. Pérez was working at the time of the incident. He told CPJ he had not received any prior threats, but said the paper's crime reporter, Carlos Figueroa, had been threatened recently.
Perez also noted that Guadalupe García Escamilla, a Nuevo Laredo radio reporter gunned down last month in front of her radio station, was also a columnist for Primera Hora.
Pérez has been under police protection since May 12. Tamaulipas state police officers have also been assigned to protect Figueroa, he said.
According to CPJ research, the U.S.-Mexico border has become one of the most dangerous places in Latin America for journalists to do their jobs. Two border journalists were killed in direct reprisal for their work in 2004, CPJ research shows.
JULY 28, 2005
Posted: August 17, 2005
Sugey Estrada, Noroeste
THREATENED
Estrada, the correspondent for the Mazatlán edition of the daily Noroeste in the town of Escuinapa, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, was threatened by the local police chief.
Around 12 p.m., Estrada went to the local police headquarters to interview Filiberto Bibriesca Sandoval, director of public security in Escuinapa, Noroeste reported. During the interview, Bibriesca warned her that he was going to "screw" whoever was behind the allegations that he had been drinking alcohol and shooting his gun in Escuinapa's seafront. Estrada, Noroeste said, denied having covered the allegations, but Bibriesca insisted that she reveal who was behind them. When Estrada asked him to clarify what he meant by "screw," Bibriesca said, "Take it the way you want, I'm sick and tired of it."
On July 29, Estrada filed a complaint with the Sinaloa State Attorney General's Office, which has opened an investigation into the threats.
In a July 30 press conference, Bibriesca offered a public apology to Estrada but denied having made any threats to her life, according to Noroeste.
Abel Enríquez Zavala, Bibriesca's predecessor as police chief, is being held for alleged involvement in the November 2004 gangland-style slaying of Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández, a photographer with the newspaper El Debate, in Escuinapa.
DECEMBER 20, 2005
Posted: January 16, 2006
Claudia Padilla Pacheco, Correo
THREATENED AND HARASSED
Padilla, a journalist for Correo in the city of Celaya, was threatened and harassed after reporting on police corruption in the central state of Guanajuato.
On December 13, she wrote an investigative story about a private security firm that employed former police officers who were being investigated on charges of torture, abuse of power and obstruction of justice. The security firm is run by a former state police chief. The next morning, she received an anonymous call on her mobile phone inquiring if she had been paid to attack the local police, Padilla told CPJ.
A week after the story broke, Padilla published a second article about an ongoing investigation on a criminal gang allegedly involved in car theft, murder cover-up and protection of drug traffickers. The Guanajuato prosecutor's office is investigating police involvement in the ring, Correo reported.
That night, intruders vandalized her neighbor's house. Later, Padilla's mother received a telephone call warning her daughter that they had broken into the wrong apartment but they now knew where the reporter lived.
Padilla told CPJ that she had received threats before but had not paid them any attention. She said this time she took the threat seriously because her family had been brought into it. The reporter filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office.