The High Risks of Documenting Mexico’s Disappeared Chantal Flores - Institute for War & Peace Reporting
go to original August 31, 2022

People take part in a 'Walk for Peace' asking for a stop to violence, extortions, executions and disappearances of people in Mexico, in Guadalajara, Jalisco state, Mexico. (Ulises Ruiz/AFP)

Update: More Than 10,000 People Go Missing Each Year in Mexico (Vallarta Daily)

Mexican journalists continue to face great challenges and risks in covering the country’s ongoing forced disappearance crisis which has left more than 100,000 people officially listed as missing.

Unprotected from threats, the independent media have to constantly balance how to uncover the truth without putting victims, sources and their own lives at risk.

Organized crime, public officials and state agents are responsible for disappearances in Mexico. While the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has taken significant steps on the search for the disappeared, over 32 per cent of cases have been reported since he took office in December 2018.

Analy Nuño, a freelance journalist, explained that both physical and psychological risks had to be taken into account when speaking to the families of disappeared persons.

“You have to understand what can be said and what not, and when is the right time,” Nuño said. “And obviously respect their processes: if they want to speak today or not.”

Carlos Manuel Juárez, an independent journalist and director of the digital news site Elefante Blanco in the northern state of Tamaulipas, agreed that the handling of information and personal safety was critical. In many cases, this included understanding that the story could not always be published immediately so as not to compromise the safety of those involved.

This can often jeopardize long-term, frequently self-financed work, and Juárez recalled cases where publications had not respected this consideration.

“The national media published the story I was working on because they did not have an ethical commitment with the families, or they did not face any risk in publishing,” Juárez explained.

The dangers inherent in covering conflict and violence not only affect journalists in Mexico, but also their families. On June 29, 2022, unidentified attackers shot and killed journalist Antonio de la Cruz near his home in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas. His daughter was wounded and died a few days later.

So far this year, 11 journalists and media workers have been killed across Mexico.

“The first thing that strikes you is the fear that something might happen to a family member,” Juárez said. “You have to think carefully that if you cannot cover it safely, then you cannot do it.”

The relatives of the disappeared also face grave risk. On May 10, 2017, Miriam Rodríguez was shot and killed in front of her home in San Fernando, Tamaulipas. Rodríguez had been searching for the people responsible for the murder of her daughter, Karen, who was kidnapped in 2014. The killing had a huge impact, said Juárez, marking a watershed not only in the understanding of disappearances and the risks for relatives leading the searches, but also in how journalists cover the subject.

“When Miriam was killed we had to retreat to see how the situation was and have a moment of analysis, and then decide what was going to be done and what not,” he said.

Read the rest at Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Related: Mother Searching for Missing Son Kidnapped, Murdered in Sinaloa (Mexico News Daily)

Related: Parents of 43 Missing Mexican Students Welcome Arrest of Former Attorney General (CNN)

Related: 3RD Volunteer Grave Search Activist Killed in Mexico (Associated Press)

Related: In Mexico, Families and Activists Urge More Work to End Disappearances (Reuters)

Related: Mexicans March to Demand Search for 100,000 Disappeared (WTOP.com)

Related: 16 Journalists Have Been Killed in Mexico So Far in 2022 (The Arizona Republic)

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