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September 26, 2011
by Ana Arana

Journalist’s decapitation another warning to social media users

Mexican organised drug cartels have again threatened social network users using a mutilated body. In the second incident this month, the decapitated and tortured body of a woman was found dumped in a public park in Nuevo Laredo, Taumalipas, a city on the US-Mexico border.

The body was discovered in the early morning hours of Saturday, September 24, with a hand scribbled cardboard sign left next to it. It said “Nuevo Laredo en Vivo and social networking sites, I’m The Laredo Girl, and I’m here because of my reports, and yours. For those who don’t want to believe, this happened to me because of my actions, for believing in the army and the navy. Thank you for your attention, respectfully, Laredo Girl…ZZZZ.”"

The victim was identified by Morelos Canseco, the interior secretary of northern Tamaulipas, as Marisol Macias Castaneda, a newsroom manager for the Nuevo Laredo local daily newspaper Primera Hora. The newspaper has not confirmed her title, but it is believed Macias Castaneda was targeted for her contribution to social networking sites.

Apparently Macias Castro contributed reports on drug violence to the blog, Nuevo Laredo EnVivo using the handle “Laredo Girl”. ZZZZ is the signature of Mexico’s most dangerous organised crime group. The Zetas started in Taumalipas as bodyguards for the Cartel del Golfo, an organised crime group from this area. The initials, Zetas, referred to a paramilitary group that initiated its activities in the northern state of Taumalipas, first as an enforcement group for the traditional drug cartel, Cartel Del Golfo, and then toppled the leadership for the Cartel Del Golfo, and is now moving its group that can work in Mexico, the United States and Central America.

Two weeks ago, two Twitter users were also attacked and killed for using the internet to report on drug related violence.

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Posted Under Americas Ana Arana Mexico press freedom social media Twitter

3 Trackbacks

Pingback: Narco Terrorism: Laredo Girl Decap « Zipline Conservative on September 26, 2011
Pingback: Mexico: Second anti-crime blogger killed | UNCUT on November 9, 2011
Pingback: Take action to end impunity | Index on Censorship on November 23, 2011

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  • MEXICO

    The second largest country in Latin America after Brazil, Mexico has the 14th largest economy in the world. The country has been shaken by the growth of powerful drug cartels that have wreaked havoc in Mexico’s regions.

    The cartels have an insidious impact on civil society. A study by the Fundación de Periodismo de Investigación (MEPI) of 11 drug-affected provinces – almost half of Mexico’s state territories – found that newspapers report only three out of ten drug-related news stories, if not fewer. There is little official censorship, although press freedom at the state level is controlled by financial restraints, as the provincial press depend on state advertising.

    I have been a journalist for three decades, in the 1980s I reported on Central America and its civil wars. In the 1990s I covered Colombia for US news outlets and since 1993, when I left daily journalism, I have focused on investigative journalism projects. I worked first for the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists and then moved to the Open Society Institute of West Africa, where I helped set up a media assistance project in Guinea Bissau. In 2007 I came to Mexico as a Knight international Fellow to train local newsrooms.

    In January 2010 with the help of other journalists and editors I launched the Fundación de Periodismo de Investigación (MEPI) launched to promote investigations and work with journalists in the US, Mexico and Central America

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