Journalist slayings in Mexico on the rise

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald/Houston Chronicle

Posted on Mon, May. 14, 2007
Journalist slayings in Mexico on the rise
Mexico is becoming an increasingly deadly assignment for reporters, second only to Iraq in journalists killed.
By MARION LLOYD
Houston Chronicle

ACAPULCO, Mexico -- Five evenings a week, Amado Ramírez fielded complaints from his radio listeners on everything from corrupt public officials to the booming drug trade in this famous resort city.

Then, on a Friday night, just blocks from a beachside strip of bars where thousands of tourists were partying, a gunman ambushed Ramírez in his car as he attempted to leave his Radiorama office. Bleeding profusely from bullet wounds in the chest, side and thigh, Ramírez dragged himself several yards to a hotel to plead for help, according to police and witness reports. Minutes later, he collapsed dead.

The April 6 slaying came as a shock even in this city inured to drug-related violence. Ramírez, 50, who also worked as a correspondent for the Televisa TV network, was the most prominent of the more than two dozen reporters and editors slain nationwide since 2000. To his frightened colleagues, his death confirmed a chilling fact: Mexico, in the grips of an escalating drug war, has become the world's second-deadliest country for journalists after Iraq.

''Of course we're scared,'' said Ricardo Castillo, news director for Acapulco's leading daily, El Sur. ``He was the most visible of all of us, and his murder was meant to send a message.''



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/106021.html

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Colombia, HUGE recipient of US aid to its military, ranks FOURTH in the world's most deadly countries for journalists.

[joshcryer]

1. RSF reports regularly on this.

Just the other day some guys car got sabatoged, and a few days before that they sadly found the body of a man who had been abducted.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22074