Christian Poveda, “la Vida Loca” director, killed in El Salvador

Reports have surfaced that French photographer and director Christian Poveda has been shot and killed in El Salvador, possibly by the gangs that his recently released documentary “La Vida Loca (the Crazy Life)” focused on. Reuters reports: Suspected Salvadorean gang members killed French filmmaker Christian Poveda, whose 2008 film “La Vida Loca” crudely depicts the [...]

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.

On the road with Mexico’s young military

It was disconcerting to see the age of the soldiers executing Calderon’s stop and search policy.

Mexican day laborers are ‘Los Bastardos’ in fictional work

At first glance, “Los Bastardos” seems a surprising film for a Mexican director to make.

Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma spotlights Mexico

The Dart Center, a Colombia University project for journalists who cover violence, got in touch with me after I published a video report on survival training for journalists in Mexico earlier this year.

Foreign ramifications of local drug wars

It’s not often you see something in the press that makes you think, Yes! I KNOW! But sometimes it happens, and there were two pieces in the media this morning that gave me that sense. The first was this column in the Guardian by George Monbiot, who came back to an issue we touched on [...]

“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.

Frontline discussion: Narco wars Mexico

Broadcast live on Ustream, June 24th 2009 Moderator: Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor for Channel 4 News Panel:Ed Vulliamy, Guardian and Observer journalist and writer Alex Tweddle

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.

First Stop in the New World: Taxi Ride

This is the final in our series of extracts from David Lida’s book “First Stop in the New World,” which has just come out in paperback. The book is divided between long chapters that deal with topics of great importance in Mexico City (crime, inequality, food, sex and even shopping), and shorter chapters that provide [...]

BorderReporter: God’s Gonna Cut You Down

What happened here last week was a sheer massacre.

First Stop in the New World: the Reality of Crime

This week MexicoReporter.com is publishing a series of extracts from David Lida’s book “First Stop in the New World,” which has just come out in paperback. The book is divided between long chapters that deal with topics of great importance in Mexico City (crime, inequality, food, sex and even shopping), and shorter chapters that provide [...]

Latest editor at the News laid off

The most recently appointed editor at the English language newspaper here in Mexico City the News has left the title after just a week in the job.

Fiction series on Mara Salvatrucha wins Webby Award

“The Ten Commandments of la Vida Loca, ” received the Webby Award for best drama series during a weekend ceremony in New York.

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.

Mexican journalists put through their survival paces

May 29 2009 – A couple of non-profits got together and ran a course just outside Mexico City this month for 18 journalists living and working here.

Film chronicles woman’s search for identity after Mexico’s ‘dirty war’

This week saw the cinema premiere here in Mexico of a film documenting the real-life story of Aleida Gallangos Vargas, the child of political activists who disappeared during the country’s “dirty war.”

Military’s drug museum shows narco tactics

The installation was designed as an educational tool for military personnel who have been tasked with fighting Mexico’s narco-trafficantes and organized crime networks.

Swine flu doesn’t deter art fans in Mexico City

I at least expected to see fashionable versions of the blue face masks being combined with the latest clothes labels, but it wasn’t so.

Video: Killer women prepare for U.S. debut

The blood-soaked drama is about to hit U.S. TV screens, and the first episode of the first series goes out April 23 on Univision.

Obama starts a new era in Mexico drive-by

I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it into work this morning. Not because of Mexico’s overloaded public transport system, but because U.S President Barack Obama was expected to arrive on his first visit to Mexico here in the country’s capital.

‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ in Iztapalapa, Mexico

It wasn’t hard to imagine what the real crucifixion of Christ might have been like if you were anywhere near the populous, working-class neighborhood of Iztapalapa in Mexico City last Friday.

‘La Vida Loca’ captures daily reality of El Salvador’s gangs, or maras

“La Vida Loca” reflects a depressing and hopeless reality. The documentary follows some of the members of ”la dieciocho,” the so-called 18th Street gang in a poor San Salvador neighborhood.

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.

Talking violence in Texas

Last week, I was invited to speak at the University of Texas Pan America about MexicoReporter.com, violence against journalists, the drug war coverage and how new technologies are contributing to the journalism beast. So I went.

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.

‘Those Who Remain’ focuses on families left behind in Mexico by migrants

The homes that Mexican migrants come from are often a jumping-off point for filmmakers, but Rulfo and Hagerman chose to stay at the point of departure to see how those who remain deal with their reduced numbers.

Video: Narcocorridos inspire Mexico City mural

After writing a song for los Tigres Del Norte about the controversial 670-mile fence project along the U.S.-Mexico border, Cristina Rubalcava got to listening to some of the band’s narcocorridos and created a mural that illustrates phrases from them.

From the archives: Be an illegal immigrant for a day

In El Alberto, a small village over 1000km from the border between Mexico and the US, tourists can pay to experience what it’s like being an illegal migrant.

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.

Legal graffiti hits the walls of Mexico City

In a country with such a rich artistic heritage of mural-ism, graffiti is a popular past-time for many of Mexico´s youth.

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.

Violence against journalists continues in Latin America

We keep our eye on the frequent press-freedom reports that come out, given the high levels of violence against journalists in Mexico. Tuesday’s release by the Committee to Protect Journalists, sadly, held no surprises.

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.

Mexico’s missing children inspire artist

Lieberman spent more than three years working on 100 drawings that are intricate copies of often bad-quality newspaper photographs of missing children, taken from the Mexican newspaper Metro.

Anti-piracy campaign targets cinema-goers

Take a trip to the cinema in Mexico anytime soon and you’ll probably see an ad campaign that scolds the Mexican public for buying pirated movies.

Video: Youth protest against bullfighting in Mexico City

Young animal rights activists took to the streets in central Mexico City on Sunday in protest against the hundreds of bullfights that take place here in Mexico.