AFP: Activists under fire in Mexico

  Jan 22 2012 – Over the last few months at least three activists have been murdered in Mexico, and a fourth survived a serious attack. In the context of Mexico’s ongoing drug-related violence, some are being targeted for daring to campaign against criminals, others for challenging the actions of corrupt officials and state forces.

Mexican journalists get survival tips for covering drug violence

Raymundo Arellano wears a pair of dog tags around his neck. His name, blood type and next of kin have been indented on the silver plates.

“My greatest fear is that I’ll be killed and they’ll bury me somewhere and no one will recognize my remains,” he says.

MRTV – Butterflies, Narcos and Broadcasters

February 25th 2011 – Mexico’s migrant monarch butterflies in the state of Michoacan see less visitors as tourists are put off by press reports of narco violence. After being fired for asking Mexico President Felipe Calderon to respond to rumors that he has an alcohol problem, outspoken broadcaster and journalist Carmen Aristegui returned to the airwaves. And drug-related violence for the first time claimed the life of a US security agent – we ask what it means for US/Mexico relations.

Human rights hit the big screen in second film festival

Mexico’s second annual human rights film festival, supported by a number of organizations here including the Mexico branch of Amnesty International, the Ambulante documentary film project and Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission, opens at the end of the week.

Mexican image of Brazil wins World Press Photo prize

Mexican photographer Carlos Cazalis was one of the winners in this year’s World Press Photo contest. The photographer was given first prize in the Contemporary Issues section for this image he took in São Paulo, Brazil, last year. The photo shows a man sleeping, wrapped in a blanket against the cold, outside São Paulo’s elite [...]

“Tracing Aleida” director on making the film and Mexico’s “dirty war”

This is a longer version of an edited interview with the director Christiane Burkhard about her documentary film project, “Tracing Aleida”.

Journalists reporting, and surviving, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

The Committee for the Protection of Journalists reports on journalists working in the northern border town of Ciudad Juarez.

Nearly 10,000 migrant kidnappings in Mexico in 6 months

During that period, 9,758 migrants were deprived of their liberty. More than 60 percent of kidnappings involved groups of migrants travelling together. The majority of those kidnapped were from Honduras (67 %). ¡8% oer the victims were from El Salvador and 13% from Guatemala.

Training Day

May 30 2009 – My breath is tearing out of my lungs and my leg muscles are screaming for a reprieve. I just scaled a 60-degree hill coated in thorny brambles and poisonous plants whilst being pounded by rain. In the dark. I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but it did. Later that night, my fellow journalists and I were kidnapped by masked guerillas who jumped onto our bus.

Jesus as a migrant in pro-immigration street theater

The performance wasn’t part of Mexico’s traditional Semana Santa but had a cross-border purpose.

Peter Gabriel asks for end impunity over Ciudad Juarez’s dead women

Peter Gabriel implored President Calderon to show “real political will, muscle and budget” in investigating the hundreds of unsolved murders of young women in Ciudad Juarez.

Photojournalism show explains 2008 in Mexico

Mexico City’s Museo de la Ciudad is playing host to a photojournalism exhibition — Expofotoperiodismo — that features nearly 50 photos from 2008.

Mexico’s media under scrutiny in documentary

Violence against journalists in Mexico is nothing new but “Voces Silenciadas” broadens the debate around the persecution of journalists to encompass the bigger issues of media ownership and the relationship between the media and Mexico’s political powers.

Mexico’s special prosecutor for crimes against journalists ineffective, reports nonprofit

Freedom of expression advocates in Mexico have issued yet another missive in support of the country’s long-suffering journalistic community.

Carmen Aristegui talks about the reality for journalists in Mexico

February 6 2009 – Carmen Aristegui, one of Mexico’s most prominent journalists, disappeared from the Mexican radio airwaves last year in a cloud of controversy.

As Reed Johnson reported in January 2008, “Aristegui’s departure from W Radio set off a flurry of op-ed commentary in Mexico City newspapers. Several commentators have denounced the incident as an act of censorship and harassment by media and governmental interests.”

Now Aristegui’s back with a new radio news show –- this time on a different network. The journalist, who continued to host her nightly television news show on CNN Español during her radio hiatus, returns to the Mexican airwaves from 6 – 10 every weekday morning on MVS Radio.

Carmen Aristegui habla sobre la realidad en México para los periodistas

Febrero 6 2009 – Para ver la entrevista completa (40 minutos), haz click aquí.

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna launch 4th Ambulante documentary festival in Mexico

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, two of Mexico’s most bankable movie stars, launched the fourth annual Ambulante documentary film festival Friday morning in a packed cinema screening room on Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma.

Lydia Cacho publishes manual for parents on detecting child abuse

Lydia Cacho’s celebrity was apparent from the get-go last Thursday night in the trendy Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City, where the journalist launched her new book “Not With My Child” (Con Mi Hij@ No).

Central American migrants face more hurdles

A group of Honduran men and women came to Mexico looking for their missing loved ones earlier this year. They claim that there are nearly 600 Honduran migrants who are missing in Mexico who disappeared whilst crossing Mexico to get to the United States.

Death penalty advertisements in Mexico

You see some strong stuff on the streets of Mexico City ans this month was no different: an advertising campaign from Mexico’s Green Party demanding the return of the death penalty to the country.

Mexico hosts its first human rights film festival

Immigration, women’s rights, illegal detention and human trafficking are some of the themes that will be examined next week during Mexico’s first human rights film festival.

Mexican men ask for an end to violence against women

A campaign featuring well-known men in Mexico asks that their fellow males stop beating up and abusing women. Do Mexican men need to be told by other Mexican men to stop beating up and abusing women?

Media advertising campaign targets violence against journalists

A television, radio and print advertising campaign is to launch here in Mexico in an attempt by press freedom groups to raise public awareness about violence against journalists.

45 journalists killed in Mexico since 2000; rights body appeals for end to impunity

Mexico’s National Commission of Human Rights appealed to authorities over the weekend to investigate thoroughly the recent killings of a number of journalists here, and to put an end to the impunity for those who murder members of the profession.

Media non-profit appeals for asylum for journalists escaping Mexico

Reporters Without Borders issued an appeal to the international community today to provide asylum for journalists fleeing Mexican cities such a Ciudad Juarez.

Journalist flees Ciudad Juarez to the U.S

Jorge Luis Aguirre, director of the news website “La Polaka,” has fled Mexico with his family to the United States after receiving death threats in his home city of Ciudad Juárez, in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua.

Newspaper offices in Northern Mexico attacked with grenades

Reports are surfacing this morning that the offices of the Culiacán newspaper El Debate were attacked with two grenades early Monday.

Two years on, dead U.S journalist remembered on both sides of the border

Activists and rights groups marched in remembrance of Brad Will yesterday in the state of Oaxaca, marking the second anniversary of the fatal shooting of the U.S videographer.

Bajo Juarez campaigns for the dead women of Ciudad Juarez

Lilia Alejandra is one of the 370 women who have disappeared in Mexico’s Chihuahua state since 1993. Her story is the main focus of Bajo Juárez, a documentary film that was five years in the making and opened here in Mexico this weekend.

Mexico to remember massacre 40 years later

Today, people of all ages will march in memory of a massacre that took place forty years ago in Mexico City – an event that remains one of the darkest in the country’s recent and bloody history.

Mexico’s Military Marches as Citizens React to Bombings

Two explosions during Mexican Independence Day celebrations in the western state of Michoacan killed eight people Monday night and injured dozens more, we reported yesterday.

NYT: How the drug war impacts civilians

The New York Times has a great piece online today about how just regular citizens are reacting to the drug war.

Mexicans march for peace

Tens of thousands of people of all social classes and ages marched across Mexico Saturday (August 30th 2008) in protest against high crime levels and rising kidnappings.

Brian Conley and co heading home

Following the detention of Brian Conley, founder of Alive in Baghdad, and some of his colleagues on August 21st in Beijing, news emerged today that he and his companions have been released and are expected to arrive in Los Angeles on Monday morning.

Alive In Baghdad founder detained in China

Brian Conley, who runs the award-winning video blog Alive in Baghdad, has been detained in Beijing whilst documenting pro-Tibet protests in the city running alongside the Olypmics.

Mexico church assailed for maligning miniskirt

Last week’s condemnation of the mini-skirt by the Mexican Catholic Church has enraged some Mexican women, who say that church’s statement that women should wear less provocative clothing makes it easier to justify rape and other forms of violence against them.

Mini-skirts banned to stop “provoking” rape in Mexico

A Mexican university has banned miniskirts and other “provocative clothing” in an effort to stop “provoking” violent attacks against women.

Waiting for a man to die

On Tuesday, I waited for a man to die. Even though several people die every minute of every day, I’ve never known the name of the person that I knew was going to die; neither have I ever known so closely when they were going to die and how. But yesterday I knew.

The man’s name was Jose Ernesto Medellin, and now he is dead. On Tuesday, he was due to die at 6pm at the hands of the Texan government for the brutal rape and murder of two teenage girls in 1993.

Mexico’s HIV-positive orphans look to the future

An estimated 2,934 children ages 14 and younger have HIV/AIDS in Mexico, according to Mexico’s national center for the Control and Prevention of Aids (CENSIDA) (link to PDF). Those are just the cases that have been detected, and there is a lack of reliable statistics on the issue.

Tijuana: Reflections on the Border

“TJ? Really?” was the response from most people last week when they learned I was heading down south of San Diego for a research trip.

They were right to be cautious. I live in Mexico City — one of the biggest, baddest towns around — but still gave Tijuana a second thought. The world’s most famous border city has been getting some bad press of late due to the drug-related violence playing out on its streets.

But what struck me more during my brief trip was the border itself and how it is littered with evidence of its own casualties and conflicts, past and present. The wall is at the center of the current national debate on immigration, and I wanted to see it for myself.