As drug war rages in Mexico, newspapers quit investigating

Susana Hayward:

A drug war is ripping apart northern Mexico, but you won't find many details about who's behind it in the local newspapers. Journalists - after their colleagues have been killed, kidnapped and threatened with death - have stopped investigating organized crime.

"It's the new trend of drug gangs: Journalists are warned, paid off or killed," said Daniel Rosas, the managing editor of the daily El Manana, the oldest newspaper in this border city south of Laredo, Texas. "Drug battles have become bloodier, and gangs have no code of ethics. They don't respect human life; why should they respect reporters?"

El Manana, founded in 1932 after the Mexican revolution with a motto to promote freedom of expression, has been self-censoring itself since its editor, Roberto Javier Mora Garcia, was stabbed to death on March 19, 2004.

Earlier this year, a former El Manana reporter, Dolores Guadalupe Garcia Escamilla, died after being shot outside her home. She'd gone to work for a radio station and had named some officials as involved in the drug trade before she was killed.

El Manana, whose walls are covered with images of past front pages, now reports only official news, its editors said. Other major newspapers along the northern frontier followed suit after their reporters were killed, kidnapped or threatened. They said corruption, impunity and lack of police support made it almost impossible for journalists to research rampant violence accurately.

That means they don't follow up on the 173 people who've disappeared since last fall throughout the state of Tamaulipas, deemed by journalism organizations the most dangerous place for reporters to work in Mexico. Twenty-three others missing are Americans from Texas.

There have been at least 108 execution-style murders since January.

"We still inform the community of what's happening but are more careful of what we say. It's a painful decision. We are hostages to self-censorship, and it's worse than censorship," said El Manana's publisher, Ramon Cantu Deandar.

Cantu, 39, has grown cynical about covering organized crime in this city of nearly half a million people. "What's the point of investigating? We can't win. Drug mafias have billions and billions of dollars. They own this city: They buy police, government officials, investigators, you name it," he said. "It's better to write a crime novel."

Laredo fears anarchy across the Rio Grande

Mexico town hit by police killing

Website seeks US border disappeared

Mexico's drug war threatens Americans

Ranchers 75 miles from Tucson say bad border policies have resulted in a daily invasion of drugs, death, pollution and violence