Q&A with Alfredo Corchado: 'Did 100,000 People Have to Die, or Disappear?' Lucy Westcott - Inter Press Service
go to original July 16, 2013

Alfredo Corchado (Samuel Lopez/Inter Press Service)

Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter's Journey Through a Country's Descent into Darkness by Alfredo Corchado Check it out on Amazon.com

The violent drug war in Mexico’s borderlands has changed the face of the country, injecting fear into both average citizens and the journalists trying to tell their stories.

Alfredo Corchado, Mexico bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News, reported from the sidelines, and received death threats while bearing witness to the upheaval in his country. He chronicles these stories in his new book, “Midnight in Mexico”, which will be published in Spanish this fall.

For journalists in Mexico, the situation is dire. Often cited as one of the worst places in the world for the press, a 2011 joint U.N. and Organisation of American States report ranked Mexico as the fifth most dangerous country in the world for reporters.

There are currently 12 journalists missing in Mexico, more than anywhere else in the world; Russia ranks second, with eight missing, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Offices of newspapers have been attacked with a car bomb, arson and gunfire.

IPS correspondent Lucy Westcott spoke to Corchado, who was born in Mexico but grew up in El Paso, Texas, about belonging to two cultures and the situation on the ground for journalists south of the border.

Read excerpts from the interview at Inter Press Service

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