There are immediate openings if you would like to get into the journalism business in Latin America, and particularly Mexico, where eight journalists have been murdered in the past six months. It’s a career that may help you ‘get a-head’.
Latin America is the deadliest place in the world for journalists, with 23 killed from January to June of this year, according to a report issued by a Swiss press freedom group. 
The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) reported that Mexico was the second deadliest country in the world for journalists, with eight murders in the last six months. Brazil ranked fifth worldwide, with six journalists killed, while Honduras had four journalists killed and Bolivia had two. 
Colombia, Panama and Haiti all had one journalist murdered. War-torn Syria led the world with 20 journalists killed in 2012. (Source FOX Latino)
Mexico “strikes back” —  Last month, the Mexican government approved a constitutional amendment that makes attacks on the press a federal offense. The amendment allows federal authorities to investigate and punish crimes against journalists, persons or installations when the right to information or the right to expression is affected, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). That’s right, attack a member of the fourth estate and you go to jail. I’m sure that the cartels are fearful of the results from murdering an inquisitive reporter.


Will the ‘new strategy’ work to protect journalists?
Mexico’s next president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has not detailed his drug war strategy but has promised to halve the number of kidnappings and murders during his six-year term by moving law enforcement away from showy drug busts and focusing on protecting ordinary citizens from gangs.
The ambiguity of Pena Nieto’s drug war plans has fed fears at home and abroad that he might look the other way if cartels smuggle drugs northward without creating violence in Mexico. Many analysts wonder if Peña Nieto is holding back politically sensitive details of his plans, or simply doesn’t know yet how he’ll be prosecute the next stage of Mexico’s drug war.
How will America’s next Administration react to this sort of strategy on Mexico’s part, presuming that Obama leaves office in the Spring of 2013, replaced by President Mitt Romney? 

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7 COMMENTS

  1. PRI, IIRC, did not enjoy a popular reputation when it was in power before. He could look the other way, but success would mean that the cartels would have to tone down the violence between them, and that doesn't strike me as soemthing I'd bet on.

  2. Velcro, what you say may be exactly true, however that doesn't discount the need for more Mainstream Media to flood to Mexico… The big named anchors should all be down there to cover beheadings and mass murders, reporting live from the front in the War on Drugs…

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    Oh my God! This so brutal. I can't believe someone has the guts to do this to them.

  5. I think that you should remain out of harm's way, however Rachel Maddow and the MSNBC anchors should all go to Mexico.

  6. I agree with your suggestion. I can think of several journalists who might be encouraged to go.

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