Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Posts
    11,181

    Gunmen Wound Reporter in Mexican Border City

    http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/storie ... 7-04-15-33
    Feb 7, 4:15 AM EST

    Gunmen attack newspaper in Mexican border city, wounding reporter

    By JORGE VARGAS
    Associated Press Writer

    NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (AP) -- At least four unidentified assailants fired a hail of bullets from assault rifles and tossed a grenade into a building housing a newspaper in the violence-wracked border city of Nuevo Laredo on Monday, wounding one reporter seriously.

    The masked gunmen attacked close to 8 p.m., firing as they entered the building and then charging to the newsroom, where they sprayed the walls with bullets and sent about 30 people scrambling for cover, witnesses said.

    Reporter Jaime Orozco Tey of the daily newspaper El Manana was wounded in the attack and was in serious condition at a local hospital.

    Reporter Osvaldo Rodriguez, was injured by flying glass and possibly shrapnel from the grenade, the Laredo Morning Times reported for its Tuesday edition. Rodriguez was treated by paramedics at the scene.

    Bullet holes were left in the walls of the office building and glass was shattered; Ramon Cantu, director of the El Manana and an afternoon newspaper, La Tarde, said the offices' reception area was practically destroyed.

    "We are very concerned about our colleague Jaime Orozco," Cantu told reporters at the newspaper's offices. He said he was surprised by the attack, given that the paper had not received any threats "lately."

    Violence and fear have become commonplace for reporters in northern Mexico, and especially border cities like Nuevo Laredo, which has been plagued in recent years by a bloody turf war between drug gangs.

    Cantu said the paper would keep on publishing.

    "We're already sweeping up our house and we're ready to bring out tomorrow's edition. We are ready to carry on our duty," he said.

    Police in Nuevo Laredo - across the border from Laredo, Texas - confirmed the attack, though they provided no immediate information on a possible motive.

    Fortunately for the paper, Monday was a holiday - celebrating the country's Constitution - and fewer reporters than usual were on duty.

    The gunmen began shooting in the reception area, and employees alerted by the shots ran for cover in the printing area.

    The floor of the reception area was littered with empty shell casings.

    A witness on the street outside the building said the gunmen had arrived in a red compact car before attacking the newspaper offices.

    In January, two reporters with El Manana were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival gangs.

    Last year, seven reporters were killed in Mexico, and one disappeared.

    Nuevo Laredo newspaper editors say they have been omitting the names of some victims of violence after drug traffickers have called and threatened reporters if the names are published. Sometimes, they add, they simply don't run the story.

    Nuevo Laredo has been in the front lines of a bloody battle between Mexico's top drug cartels fighting for control of its billion-dollar smuggling routes into the United States.

    So far this year, almost one person every day has been murdered in the city of 300,000. All but a few of the killings appear to have been related to drug violence.
    RIP Butterbean! We miss you and hope you are well in heaven.-- Your ALIPAC friends

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  2. #2
    Administrator ALIPAC's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Gheen, Minnesota, United States
    Posts
    67,706
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    California or ground zero of the invasion
    Posts
    16,029
    http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/americas/m ... b06na.html

    Gunmen storm Mexican newspaper
    Reporter seriously wounded; border city plagued by violence



    New York, February 7, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Monday's vicious attack against the offices of the newspaper El Mañana in Nuevo Laredo, a city on the U.S.-Mexican border that is plagued by drug-related violence. Unidentified assailants fired assault rifles and tossed a grenade at the newspaper's offices, causing considerable damage and seriously wounding one reporter. The paper's editor was murdered just two years ago.

    "This despicable attack must be fully investigated by Mexican authorities and those responsible must be brought to justice," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "We call on President Vicente Fox to uphold his pledge to seek the nomination of a special prosecutor to investigate crimes against free expression, a position that will be crucial in the months leading up to the July presidential elections."

    At least two masked gunmen stormed the newsroom of El Mañana at around 8 p.m. on Monday, firing rifles and hurling a grenade, according to press reports. Reporter Jaime Orozco was struck by five shots, including one to the spinal area. Orozco was hospitalized in serious condition today.

    The attack caused substantial damage to the offices. The reception area was destroyed, while glass shattered, power was cut, and bullets pitted the walls of the building, El Mañana said on its Web site. The several reporters and editors in the newsroom threw themselves to the ground after hearing the gunshots, the newspaper reported. Monday was Constitution Day, a national holiday in Mexico, so fewer reporters than usual were on duty when the attack occurred.

    Nuevo Laredo, a city of 500,000 in the state of Tamaulipas, has been swept by a wave of violence related to drug trafficking. Guadalupe GarcÃ*a Escamilla, a crime reporter, died in the city last April from injuries she suffered in a shooting in front of her radio station.

    Since the turf war between drug cartels intensified two years ago, many journalists working along the U.S.-Mexico border have engaged in self-censorship, CPJ research shows. State authorities have been unable to provide adequate protection.

    The newspaper's editor, Roberto Javier Mora GarcÃ*a, was stabbed to death in March 2004, prompting El Mañana to censor its coverage on sensitive issues such as drug trafficking and organized crime. "We can't do investigative journalism on these topics, as the state does not guarantee the security of our reporters," Editorial Director Heriberto Cantú told CPJ in a recent interview. "There is no freedom of expression without guarantees to exercise journalism."

    CPJ research shows that northern Mexico—particularly the region along the U.S.-Mexican border—has become one of the most dangerous places in Latin America for journalists. Mexican journalists are targeted for their coverage of sensitive issues such as drug trafficking, organized crime, and political corruption.

    Four Mexican journalists have been killed in reprisal for their work in the last five years, CPJ research shows. CPJ is investigating the slayings of five other journalists, whose murders may also be related to their work. Yet another reporter—Alfredo Jiménez Mota of the Hermosillo daily El Imparcial—has been missing since April 2, 2005, and is feared dead.

    Following a meeting with a CPJ delegation in New York City on September 15, Fox said he would ask his nation's attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate crimes against free expression.

    In January, CPJ sent Fox a letter expressing disappointment that the special prosecutor had not yet been appointed and urging him to expedite the nomination.
    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  4. #4
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    California or ground zero of the invasion
    Posts
    16,029
    http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/ ... 815712.htm

    Posted on Tue, Feb. 07, 2006

    Gunmen attack Mexican newspaper, critically injuring reporter

    BY ALFREDO CORCHADO
    The Dallas Morning News

    As bullets rang out in the Nuevo Laredo newsroom and a grenade exploded, reporters and editors fell to the floor.

    One reporter saw a colleague being hit by stray bullets.

    "I prayed and prayed," he said Tuesday. "Praying calmed me."

    "I was afraid I would lose my life," said another reporter. "I imagined the person walking in and shooting at everyone."

    At least two masked assailants stormed into the El Manana newspaper Monday evening and opened fire, critically injuring one reporter.

    The brazen attack was the first known episode in the escalating border violence that has penetrated the offices of a news organization.

    The reporter, Jaime Orozco Tey, was wounded in the attack and was fighting for his life at a local hospital Tuesday. Orozco was hit five times by stray bullets, police said. Other reporters and editors received minor wounds from flying glass and debris, he added.

    "The assailants walked into the lobby of the newspaper and yelled, `You're all going to hell,' and ... started shooting up the place," said Ramon Cantu Deandar, editor of El Manana and an afternoon daily, La Tarde.

    The gunmen ran out and left in different vehicles. No arrests were made Monday night.

    Cantu said newspaper editors were investigating to determine a possible motive for the shooting.

    "But even if we find out why, I'm not so sure we would print it," Cantu said. "We live here under a code of self-censorship, and even under those rules we're vulnerable.

    "Nuevo Laredo continues to be the battleground for drug cartels," said Cantu. "And reporters continue to get caught in the crossfire. The problem is you don't know who these assailants are or why they retaliate against us."

    President Vicente Fox, traveling in Rosario, called the attack "despicable" Tuesday afternoon and said the fight against criminal organizations would continue.

    He said the attack was against all journalists and freedom of expression and that it was to be condemned all the more because it was an attempt to stop the paper from fulfilling its duty of informing people.

    "To organized crime I only reiterate: You will not force the Mexican people to yield, nor the federal government nor the country's security institutions."

    Mexico's attorney general's office and the military, which have had a large presence in the city since last summer, took over the investigation and offered protection for the newspaper staff, Cantu said.

    Cantu said reporters returned to work Tuesday and went about their job "as normally as possible ... We're a little quiet, somber, but with the same determination to do our work."

    Colleagues across the border condemned the incident.

    Reporting the ongoing story is difficult, said Diana Fuentes, editor of the Laredo Morning Times in Texas.

    "It can be terrifying," Fuentes said. "We have not been in their shoes directly. But we have had our people threatened. So we take the precautions that we would ask everyone to take ... Be aware of your surroundings. Maintain the highest professional standards. Don't get carried away with what everybody has to say. And always let people know where you're going."

    In New York, a spokesman for the Committee to Protect Journalists said the attack underscores the degree to which "Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places in Latin America to work as a journalist ... worse than Colombia."

    "It's incredible. We have condemned this despicable act and we hope the reporter makes a full recovery," said Carlos Lauria, America's program coordinator. "This is a newspaper that was already censoring some of its coverage because of attacks against it. Attacking a paper that was not doing aggressive coverage gives us a clear picture of the dangers that reporters confront in doing their job."

    The attack is part of a growing climate of fear and violence that has engulfed Nuevo Laredo and turned drug traffickers into the primary threat to Mexican journalists along the border, analysts said Tuesday.

    "In the last 20 months, the number of violent attacks against journalists has been on the rise," said Omar Raul Martinez, president of the Manuel Buendia Foundation for press freedom. Manuel Buendia was a newspaper columnist killed in 1984.

    Suspected drug traffickers have been linked to two or three of the eight fatal attacks against journalists since 2003. Traditionally, it has been politicians who have used the courts and sometimes violence to silence reporters, Martinez said. But deaths were less common.

    Attacks against journalists have happened before in Nuevo Laredo and at El Manana. In January, two El Manana reporters escaped injury when they were caught in a crossfire between rival gangs. In April 2005, radio reporter Guadalupe "Lupita" Garcia Escamilla died after she was shot nine times by an unidentified assailant as she arrived at work.

    In March 2004, Roberto Javier Mora Garcia, El Manana's top editor, was stabbed to death. His killing remains under investigation. A suspected assailant, a U.S. citizen, was killed inside a Nuevo Laredo jail.

    The latest incident comes as two warring drug cartels fight a bloody battle for control of the I-35 corridor used to transport tons of drugs across the border into the United States.

    An average of one person per day has been killed in Nuevo Laredo so far this year, most in drug-related violence, officials have said.

    Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores, who traveled from Laredo, Texas, to a border security conference in Washington Tuesday, said the attack was "an indication the cartels are still continuing to keep the media quiet."

    "I don't see any hopeful signs of the violence decreasing in Nuevo Laredo," he said, noting that the Mexican border city has had 26 murders so far this year.
    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •