Mexico / Americas

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…

Nueva York, 28 de febrero de 2000 – Agentes federales en Yuma, Arizona, arrestaron a dos hermanos acusados en el asesinato en 1997 de Benjamín Flores González, editor del periódico mexicano La Prensa. Según The Arizona Daily Star, Ismael y Gabriel González Gutiérrez fueron arrestados por acusaciones de narcotráfico el 24 de febrero, después de…

Guatemala and El Salvador have both emerged from bloody civil wars fought between conservative central governments and leftist insurgents. And in both countries, the press is beginning to show signs of independence.

Dear colleagues and friends, I turn to you once more to request your intervention or at least inform you of the latest events regarding the difficult situation we at the weekly newsmagazine Pulso,of which I am editor, are going through.

July 8, 1999 — CPJ is concerned about the safety of Jesús Barraza, editor of the weekly Pulsoin San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora State, Mexico. As mentioned in CPJ’s May 13 and June 14 letters to President Ernesto Zedillo, Barraza has received several death in recent months because of his reporting on the local narcotics…