The US Consulate in Matamoros has issued a warning to US citizens to use caution when travelling in Veracruz and recommends only traveling during the day. The same bulletin reiterated long-standing advice that U.S. citizens “defer non-essential travel to the state of Tamaulipas”.

Highways in the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and San Luis Potosi have become notoriously dangerous, with criminals taking advantage of the cover of night to hold up passenger buses and private vehicles.

The main highways in northern Veracruz are connected to the port city of Tampico, just across the state line in Tamaulipas. The most dangerous roads in Tamaulipas lead to the border bridges with South Texas.

The bodies of ten murder victims were dumped in the Veracruz town of Tampico Alto this morning. Like the multi-homicide targeting the buses, the specific motive for the violence is unclear, but the perpetrators are assumed to be associated with organized crime operating in the region.

As has been the case with Tamaulipas, much of the violence in Veracruz is occurring under a mantle of fear-induced silence. The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders this week named Veracruz one of the ten deadliest regions in the world for journalists.

Also this week, 900 police officers in the port city of Veracruz and its nearby suburb of Boca del Rio were dismissed and replaced by soldiers in what authorities describe as an anti-corruption measure.

Marcela Yarce and Rocío González (credit: Contralinea)

Certain elements of the most recent crime against journalists stand out from other murders in the hemisphere’s deadliest country for press workers. First, it was a double homicide involving two women; Marcela Yarce and Rocío González. Second, it occurred in Mexico City – which has been spared much of the physical violence suffered by press workers in other parts of the country. Third, the two journalists were close friends. The two had gone to a cafe together on Wednesday night.

Marcela Yarce co-founded the critical investigative news magazine “Contralinea” which has been the target of lawsuits, harrassment, and office break-ins. She went from actively reporting to becoming a key figure in the magazine’s administrative functions. Noteably, she secured advertising revenue for the publication which receives no government-sponsored advertising. Official ads are the financial life blood of many commercial news outlets in Mexico.

Rocío González spent 15 years as a reporter at the Televisa network. She worked as as freelance journalist and owned a currency exchange booth in Mexico City’s international airport. Mexico City authorities have indicated they are investigating robbery as a possible motive, citing a large cash withdrawal from the business coffers before the women dissappeared.

Another publicly-disclosed line of investigation is that of femicide; a murder that specifically targets women and usually involves both physical torture and sexual assault. Femicide victims are usually in their teens or early 20s. Both of the murdered women were 48 years old.

Press freedom organizations have called on Mexico City investigators not to rule out the possibility that the murders were related to the journalism work of the women.

The bodies of Marcela Yarce and Rocío González were found dumped in a park Thursday in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district. They were stripped naked, hands and feet bound, mouths gagged, with a cord around their necks. Asfixiation is noted as the cause of death in both cases although their bodies bore gunshot wounds.

Their deaths came one week after the kidnapping and murder of veteran reporter Humberto Millán Salazar in the state capital of Sinaloa. Press freedom organizations say eight press workers have been killed in Mexico so far this year – half of them in the state of Veracruz.

Armed men broke into the home of columnist and editor Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco early Monday morning and killed him along with his wife and 21 year old son, Misael, who had recently started performing photography work. Another son, named Miguel like his father, is a staff photographer at the same newspaper but lives in a separate residence.

While more reporters die violent deaths in Mexico than in any other country in the Americas, it’s not common that they are killed inside their homes with other family members. According to Notiver, the newspaper he co-edited, Miguel Angel Lopez Velsco lived two blocks from a police station.

Two other Mexican reporters have been murdered in recent weeks. Pablo Ruelas Barraza was shot dead June 13th while resisting an apparent kidnapping attempt in the state of Sonora. Some regional coverage of the crime indicated that Ruelas Barraza had spent some time in prison and stated he was  unemployed at the time of his murder.

Noel López Olguín was found in a shallow grave in the state of Veracruz. He had been kidnapped in March.

Another newspaper reporter, Marco Antonio López Ortíz, has been missing since unidentified men kidnapped him earlier this month in the state of Guerrero.

Some hail it as a necessary code of ethics in an media environment that often sensationalizes violent news stories. Others condemn it for further restricting a press that already practices a significant amount of self-censorship.

Among the rules are the requirements that reporters take a position against violence perpetrated by organized crime, not allow themselves to become “involuntary spokespersons” for the cartels, and “not interfere in the combat against crime” by publishing information that could put an investigation or operation at risk.

Only four major national media outlets have not signed onto the pact; 2 newspapers (La Jornada and Reforma), the weekly investigative news magazine Proceso, and the MVS broadcasting company. Another notable exception is the Diario de Juárez, the leading newspaper in the city known as ground zero for the militarized offensive against organized crime. But even those outlets may face pressure to conform to the new guidelines.

Mexican senators have indicated they’ll move a proposal as early as next week to make the voluntary reporting guidelines law.

It’s gotten to the point that massacres have become near daily events in Mexico…and behind each of those massacres are the stories of the people who died and their families. These back stories are what investigative reporter Marcela Turati has documented in her new book, “Fuego Cruzado” – or “Crossfire” in English.

Download audio file (MarcelaTurati_lofi.mp3)

Turati sat down with South Notes recently to discuss these stories that go uncovered in a media landscape that can barely keep up with registering the daily death toll. The audio is in Spanish.

Different press freedom organizations register different death tolls. Switzerland’s Press Emblem Campaign documents 14, France’s Reporters Without Borders registers 7, 8, and 11 depending on the post, and the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists lists only 3.

Comparing notes with the laudable documentation conducted by Mexico’s Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET), it seems the figure published by the Press Emblem Campaign is the most accurate. However, I switched out one of the deaths listed by PEC for another.

Journalists killed in Mexico in 2010:

1. Valentín Valdés Espinosa was abducted with a colleague on January 7th in Saltillo, Coahuila by armed men in SUVs. His co-worker was released but the body of the Zócalo de Saltillo newspaper reporter’s body was dumped in front of a motel bearing signs of torture and multiple gunshot wounds. There was also reportedly a handwritten message that read “This is going to happen to those who don’t understand. The message is for everyone”.

2. José Luis Romero was found dead on January 16th along a rural road near Los Mochis, Sinaloa. He was last seen on Dec 30, 2009 as he was abducted on his way into a restaurant. His body bore gunshot wounds and signs of torture. The police investigator assigned to the case was also murdered.

3. Jorge Ochoa Martínez, editor of El Sol de la Costa and founder of the weekly El Oportuno, was shot multiple times on January 29th after leaving a party in Ayutla de los Libres, Guerrero.

4. Jorge Rábago Valdez dies on March 2nd in a coma in Reynosa, Tamaulipas after his abduction on February 19th amid speculation over the cause of death. Former employers from Radio Rey and “Reporteros en Red” remained tight-lipped about the case. Reynosa is a city in which organized crime maintains a short leash on press coverage.

5. Evaristo Pacheco Solís, reporter for the weekly Visión Informativa, shot to death on March 12th in Chilpancingo, Guerrero.

6. Enrique Villicaña Palomares, political analyst and columnist for the La Voz de Michoacán newspaper found dead on April 10th with wounds from an “arma blanca”, which can be anything from a knife to a blunt instrument. He was abducted on April 5th.

*. Maria Isabella Cordero, former local Televisa presenter, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Chihuahua City on April 17th. * Cordero was no longer working in the media industry at the time of her death and her work at Televisa was not related to news reporting. She is counted in Press Emblem Campaign’s death toll, but not here.

7 & 8. Juan Francisco Rodríguez Ríos, correspondent with the El Sol de Acapulco newspaper, and his wife Elvira Hernández Galeana, editor of the weekly Nueva Línea were gunned down on June 28th in Guerrero in the internet cafe the couple operated. Rodríguez Ríos had just come back from covering an event marking the 15 year anniversary of the Aguas Blancas Massacre of campesinos by Guerrero state police.

9. Hugo Alfredo Olivero, editor of the El Día de Michoacán newspaper and correspondent for ADN news agency shot 3 times in the head in his truck in Apatzingán, Michoacán on July 6th.

10. Marco Aurelio Martínez Tijerina of XEDD Radio La Tremenda in Montemorelos, Nuevo León was found with a gunshot wound to the head on July 10th after he was abducted the day before.

11. Guillermo Alacaraz Trejo, audiovisual producer and cameraman for the Chihuahua State Human Rights Commission, was gunned down on July 10th while leaving the offices of his former workplace, Omnia newspaper.

**12.  Eduardo Antonio Nieves Rubio, cameraman for the city government of Tepic, Nayarit, killed in a drive-by shooting on July 14th. **Nieves Rubio is not included in Press Emblem Campaign’s 2010 count, but is included here due to the frequency with which Mexican media outlets use stock content produced by the media relations departments of governmental entities.

13. Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco, photojournalist in training at the El Diario de Ciudad Juárez newspaper, shot dead on September 16th while sitting in a car in a parking lot in Ciudad Juárez. Another reporter from the same outlet was wounded in the attack. Soon after, El Diario newspaper editors published a headlines-grabbing editorial asking power brokers and organized criminals what they had to do to ensure the lives of their reporters.

14. Carlos Alberto Guajardo, reporter for the El Expreso newspaper in Tamaulipas, gunned down in Matamoros while covering the November 5th shootout that killed Gulf Cartel leader Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén, aka “Tony Tormenta”.

While this list strives to be as comprehensive as possible regarding media worker deaths in Mexico in 2010, it does not touch on the dozens of incidents of threats and intimidation, nor does it include a list of Mexican journalists who have fled the country due to security concerns.

In the Wednesday ruling, the judge also imposed a fine of 15,000 pesos – more than US$1000 – and stripped Dr. Camero of his civil and political rights. The doctor is a key member of the “Tierra y Libertad” low power FM station based in the low-income but tightly-knit community of the same name. It’s located on the outskirts of the northern industrial city of Monterrey and is home to many factory workers.

Tierra y Libertad first applied for a radio license in 2002 and began broadcasting without a permit later that year.  In 2008, broadcast equipment was confiscated in an aggressive raid involving more than 100 police. Through the help of the Mexico chapter of the World Association of Community Broadcasters – or AMARC – the station finally secured a license last year.

Licensed community radio stations are extremely rare in Mexico. All licensed LPFMs here started out broadcasting without government permission.

According to AMARC Mexico, Dr. Camero’s case is the first of a community radio programmer receiving a prison sentence specifically for broadcasting without a license. The community radio association is calling on the Mexican government to establish criteria for the legal operation of LPFMs in line with international standards.

The investigator’s disappearance and death illustrates why many high-level crimes in Mexico go unpunished. Cartel-related violence in Tamaulipas also frequently goes unreported for fear of retaliation. Early this morning, a car bomb exploded outside of the Ciudad Victoria office of the national broadcaster, Televisa, which has been covering the massacre.

Testimony by the massacre’s sole survivor indicates the murdered migrants had been kidnapped en route to the US by organized criminals. An average of more than 1600 migrants are kidnapped in Mexico each month according to data published by the country’s National Human Rights Commission.

HOST INTRO: Journalists held marches across Mexico over the weekend to call attention to a rising tide of violence against the media and to protest the impunity surrounding the cases of dozens of murdered reporters. Shannon Young files this report from Mexico City.

[dewplayer:http://www.fsrn.org/audio/download/7287/20100809sy.mp3]

(reading names)

The Mexico City march began by reading the names of the 64 press workers murdered in the past decade. Ten journalists have been killed so far this year, putting 2010 on target to be the deadliest year ever for Mexican reporters. Eleven others are officially considered “missing persons”.

A column of around 1000 journalists and supporters participated in the silent march to Mexico’s Interior Ministry. Reporters held smaller demonstrations in 11 other Mexican cities.

(Elia Baltazar w/ translation)

Newspaper reporter and march organizer Elia Baltazar said the demonstrations marked the first time journalists have turned out in large enough numbers to affect traffic, but that reporters shouldn’t have to be in the streets protesting.

ELIA BALTAZAR: “Our place is in the streets only when we are reporting from them. That’s what we want – to continue reporting and informing the public. Demonstrations are not our place. This demonstration was an exception because we believe it’s time already to call the attention of the public. Journalists can no longer be silent on this matter. It needs to be brought before the public opinion.

Mexico has ranked as the Western Hemisphere’s deadliest country for journalists for several years. But what catalyzed reporters to hit the streets now was the recent kidnapping of 4 reporters in a single day. Three of the kidnapped worked for national broadcast media – a sector that hasn’t seen as much violence as the smaller, regional press. July was also a particularly deadly month, with 4 reporters murdered over a span of 8 days.

(Chants of “ni uno mas” )

Reporter and Editor Francisco Ortiz said it was about time the Mexico City press corps mobilized in support of media workers based in more dangerous areas of the country. Ortiz lives and works in Ciudad Juárez, the epicenter of Mexico’s Drug War. He said that reporters there have to be very cautious about how they cover the city’s top news story.

FRANCISCO ORTIZ: “You have to be careful about what you say. You have to know what to publish and what not to publish due to serious threats against reporters in Ciudad Juárez. Those who cover the crime beat may receive threats by phone for reporting a story that could either damage or benefit any of the criminal groups fighting for control of the city.”

Ortiz adds that organized crime isn’t the only sector trying to influence coverage.

FRANCISCO ORTIZ: ”There’s an ongoing campaign right now in Juarez in which the state and municipal governments try to convince journalists to report more positive things about the city than negative. As if this alone would end the violence. It’s not a question of whether to report on the violence because it exists or if the violence exists because it’s being reported. It makes no sense.”

While Mexico City-based media tend to run a lower risk of targeted assassinations, they are not immune to campaigns of intimidation and harassment. The federal government does have a special office to prosecute crimes against journalists – but it has been the subject of much criticism from those who have registered their cases.

Zosimo Camacho is the newsroom manager of Contralinea. He says the investigative news magazine has documented three office break-ins and multiple threats before the special prosecutor’s office, but they haven’t received any response.

ZOSIMO CAMACHO: “The delay with which they’ve taken on cases – not just ours, but of aggressions against journalists around the country – results in practically no action. We could say that none of the incidents of crimes against journalists have been solved. So, we have little faith that this situation will really change because we don’t see an earnest political will to act in defense of the freedom of expression and the right to information.”

Press freedom organizations argue that it’s precisely the lack of official action that enables crimes against journalists to continue. Ricardo Gonzalez is with the Mexico chapter of the international press freedom organization, Article 19.

RICARDO GONZALEZ: “The impunity regarding the crimes and violence against the press is rampant. I mean, we’re talking about around 98 percent of cases that remain impune at the moment – which obviously is an open invitation for future perpetrators. There is a high probability that you will get caught by the police for I dunno – crossing a light or something – but not for doing something to attack a journalist.”

The intensity of crimes against journalists and the lack of official action to protect the freedom of expression has not gone unnoticed. On Monday, Special Rapporteurs from both the United Nations and the Organization of American States began a 16-day fact-finding mission in Mexico.

Shannon Young, FSRN, Mexico City.

This comes in the wake of a corruption scandal in which prison guards in Gómez Palacios, Durango allegedly released and armed convicts to carry out mass murder in Torreón, Chihuahua. The two sister cities are one metropolitan area separated by a river which marks the state line.

Federal police investigators dropped this bombshell in a weekend press conference after looking into the July 18th massacre of 17 people at a birthday in a hotel. Eighteen people were wounded in the same attack. This was the third such massacre this year thought to have been committed by inmates released from the state penitentiary in Gómez Palacios. Crime scene shell casings were traced to assault rifles used by guards at the prison.

The four missing journalists aren’t the only victims in the scandal’s immediate fall out. A prison guard has been killed and 8 human heads have been found around the city of Durango, capital of the state of the same name.