New York, October 6, 2000 — Former Ciudad Juárez police commissioner Javier Benavides González announced earlier this week that he has dropped the criminal-defamation suit he had filed against editor Jesús Antonio Pinedo Cornejo and reporter Luis Villagrana of the weekly Semanario.
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in MEXICO New York, October 2, 2000 — CPJ has written to the attorney general of Chihuahua State to inquire about the prosecution of journalists Jesús Antonio Pinedo Cornejo and Luis Villagrana on criminal-defamation charges. Pinedo Cornejo edits the weekly Semanario, based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gratified that Mexican journalists have generally been able to cover the current election campaign without government interference. However, we would like to express our concern about a number of recent incidents.
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in MEXICO New York, June 23, 2000 — According to local and international news reports,, unidentified gunmen attacked Lilly Téllez, news host at Mexico’s second-largest TV network, in Mexico City yesterday. Téllez, host of the “Hechos del Siete” (Channel Seven News) program on TV Azteca in…
Dear Mr. Madrazo: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about the prosecution of Melitón García, a reporter with the Monterrey-based daily El Norte, who is being charged under Mexico’s federal electoral law for fraudulently obtaining a voter credential. If convicted, García could be jailed for up to six years.
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in MEXICO. New York, May 1, 2000 — The body of radio reporter José Ramírez Puente, the host of a popular news program in the Mexican town of Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, was found in his car late Saturday evening. Ramírez,…
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in MEXICO. New York, April 13, 2000 — CPJ is investigating the recent killing of Pablo Pineda, a reporter and photographer with the Mexican newspaper La Opinión in the border city of Matamoros. On April 9 at approximately 2:45 a.m., agents from the U.S. Border Patrol…
Speaking Out in Guatemala and l SalvadorBy Marylene SmeetsLast April, a mysterious program called “Hoy por Hoy” (“Right Now”) appeared on Guatemalan radio. The format consisted of gossip and political chitchat, and the hosts seemed to have it in for journalists. One of them often described Dina Fern‡ndez, a columnist and editor at Guatemala’s biggest…
While the Mexican press started covering local politics with greater confidence and independence, the drug trade was still an extremely dangerous assignment. As in past years, the government made little progress investigating attacks when they did occur. 1999 saw the first-ever primary election within the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has dominated Mexican politics since…
New York, Feb. 28, 2000–Federal agents in Yuma, Arizona, have arrested two brothers charged in the 1997 murder of Mexican newspaper publisher Benjamín Flores González. According to The Arizona Daily Star, Ismael and Gabriel González Gutiérrez were arrested on drug trafficking charges on February 24, following their indictment in Phoenix on February 9. The murder…