Journalists, Like All of Society, Have No Guarantee of Protection from the Mexican State Jose Gil Olmos - Proceso
go to original March 31, 2017

US provides cover for Mexico’s murderous elite – human rights activist (RT America)

The entirety of Mexican society, and journalists as part of it, have suffered a complete abandonment in the face of organized crime's control of the government. There is nothing protecting us. No authority is capable of providing security, nor, in the case of reporters, is there any manual, protocol or national or international methods of protection that offer protection against the growing power of criminal groups that have already transformed themselves into authorities.

Starting with the emergence of the Narco State in places like Michoacán, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Guerrero and Chihuahua, among others, where public authority and organized crime are the same, citizens and journalists who live in the most dangerous areas have no governmental protection. They are subject to the will of criminal groups that have enthroned themselves as the only ones in charge.

It's no coincidence that in Chihuahua and Veracruz, states governed by the PRI members Javier and César Duarte who were accused of corruption and diverting public resources, have been the locations of the murders of journalists Ricardo Monlui Cabrera and Miroslava Breach Velducea. Nor that in the violent state of Guerrero, reporter Cecilio Pineda was murdered. All in less than a month.

We journalists, like all of Mexican society, have no guarantee of protection from the Mexican state, which shows, in this way, a failure in its main function: giving citizens security.

Facing this situation of abandonment, there's no possibility of finding a protected space for journalists in their work of informing. The special prosecutors [for Attention to Crimes Committed Against Freedom of Expression] created for investigating cases or to provide safeguards [Mechanism for the Protection of Journalists and Human Rights Defenders] are ineffective in the face of a criminal power that arose from the same government structures.

The manuals and protocols for protection designed by global organizations to defend journalists, including those created by international news agencies, also don't work with the Mexican reality where authorities and criminal gangs are the same, where regions, territories and even cities are controlled by criminal groups, where there are armies of assassins and informants who wear police and military uniforms, who inform the regional crime bosses before informing the authorities.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices | Spanish original

Related: If You Want to Murder a Journalist in Mexico, Chances Are You'll Get Away with It (teleSUR)

Related: Mexico Press Freedom: Journalists Live Between Fear and Bribes (Mexico Voices)

Related: Journalists' Safety: Tips for Staying Safe While Covering Violent Protests (International Center for Journalists)

Translated by Rachel Alexander

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico - on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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