Mexico / Americas

  
A marcher stops to write a peace slogan during an August 2011 protest against Mexican violence. (AP)

Mexican cartels keep up social media intimidation

The dissemination of reports and graphic photos of a dead man, reportedly decapitated and left in the border city of Nuevo Laredo with a warning that he was murdered for using a chat room, appears to be the latest attempt by organized crime to intimidate social media users and control the online agenda. While it’s…

Read More ›

Smoke pours out from the front of the El Buen Tono offices. (Reuters)

Newspaper offices set on fire in Mexico

New York, November 7, 2011–A group of unidentified gunmen stormed into the newsroom of the daily El Buen Tono in the state of Veracruz on Sunday, vandalized equipment, and set the premises on fire, according to local press reports.

Read More ›

María Elizabeth Macías Castro's killers left this note. (AFP)

Mexico murder may be social media watershed

María Elizabeth Macías Castro’s killers made sure their actions were understood. In a macabre, carefully orchestrated mise-en-scene, they placed her body in front of a poster with the ominous note. Nearby they left a computer keyboard, with a pair of headphones on her decapitated head.

Read More ›

Mexican police reporter missing in Veracruz

New York, September 29, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports that Mexican journalist Manuel Gabriel Fonseca Hernández has gone missing from the city of Acayucán, in Veracruz state. Fonseca’s friends first reported him missing on September 20, police records show.

Read More ›

Journalist’s decapitated body found in Mexico

New York, September 26, 2011–The decapitated body of Mexican journalist Maria Elizabeth Macías Castro was found on a road near the city of Nuevo Laredo on Saturday, news reports said.

Read More ›

Motive unclear, but murders become rallying point

The brutal, September 1 murders of two women from the world of mass communications drew international headlines as the latest attack against the Mexican news media. But the sensational case–the two were found strangled in a park in the heart of Mexico City–illustrates the complexities of determining motives amid the pervasive violence afflicting Mexico. Since…

Read More ›

Body of abducted journalist found in Mexico

New York, August 25, 2011–The body of Mexican journalist Humberto Millán Salazar was found early today in a field in the state of Sinaloa near the state capital, Culiacán, with a gunshot wound in the head, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Authorities said the journalist was abducted early yesterday by men in two…

Read More ›

Journalists flee Veracruz as cartels crack down

In the port city of Veracruz, Mexico, reporters are fleeing for their lives or are in hiding, according to Notiver, the city’s principal newspaper, and local reporters. This flight began on Wednesday after the decapitated body of Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, a police beat reporter for Notiver for nearly three decades, was found near…

Read More ›

The funeral procession of Miguel Angel López Velasco, who was killed with his wife and son on June 20. (AP)

Journalist found decapitated in Mexico

New York, July 26, 2011–The decapitated head and body of veteran reporter Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz was found early this morning, according to officials in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The journalist was abducted on Sunday by armed men as she left her house.

Read More ›

A promotional image for "On the Record," which opens this week at London's Arcola Theatre.

Journalists take stage: Q&A with ‘Record’ playwright

The true stories of journalists from Mexico, Sri Lanka, Russia, the United States, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories will hit the stage July 20 at London’s Arcola Theatre. “On the Record,” which runs through August 13, examines the careers of six journalists, the risks they face, and their determination to make an impact through their…

Read More ›