100 Armed Men Attack, Rob Seven Journalists in Mexico’s Guerrero State teleSUR
go to original May 15, 2017

Mexico is the most dangerous country for journalists in the western hemisphere (teleSUR English)

Some 100 presumed members of a drug cartel assaulted seven journalists covering a story on drug-related crime, stealing their computers, cameras, cellphones and personal documents, Mexican authorities and local media reported Sunday.

“They told us they will burn us alive,” Sergio Ocampo, one of the journalists attacked Saturday by alleged members of a cartel called La Familia Michoacana, said about the attack.

The armed men stopped the journalists, who were traveling in two vehicles, as they drove along a highway between Ciudad Altamirano and Iguala, notorious as the town where 43 Ayotzinapa teacher training students were disappeared in 2014. The assailants hit and threatened the journalists, stole all their gear as well as one of the vehicles and then let them go in the other SUV. None of the reporters were seriously injured.  

The reporters were on assignment for various national and international media outlets to cover a story on the deployment of federal security forces at San Miguel Totolapan. The presence of federal forces was meant to support the residents who set up a vigilante group in their fight against the Michoacana Family and Los Tequileros, two organized crime groups responsible for kidnappings and extortion in the area.

The journalists were from the outlets La Jornada, Vice News, Hispano Post, Quadratin, Imagen TV and Bajo Palabra.

In a statement released Sunday, the government of Guerrero stated that authorities suspected that members of the Michoacana Family were behind the attack.

Read the rest at teleSUR

Related: Veteran Mexican Drug Beat Journalist Javier Valdez Murdered, the Fifth Reporter Killed in the Past Three Months (teleSUR)

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