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Wednesday, July 26, 2017

CPJ: Mexican Journalist Threatened in Michoacán

Republished by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from CPJ.org

Protesters Demanding Justice for the Murder of Salvador Adame
Mexico City, July 26, 2017

Mexican authorities must undertake a swift and credible investigation into death threats sent to José Maldonado and ensure the journalist's safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

Maldonado, who is based in Morelia, the capital of the central Mexican state of Michoacán, told CPJ he received a threatening email on July 21 signed Raúl Solorio. The email warned Maldonado, the 49-year-old editorial director of Agencia Mexicana de Noticias Noventa Grados, to stop reporting on the activities of the state's law enforcement agencies. The message, which CPJ has viewed, ends with a series of implicit death threats against Maldonado. The journalist told CPJ he does not know of anyone named Raúl Solorio.


"In Mexico, threats against journalists too often escalate to deadly violence," said CPJ Senior Program Coordinator for the Americas Carlos Lauría in New York. "Mexican authorities should swiftly investigate the threatening messages sent to José Maldonado, and ensure that he and other threatened journalists have the necessary protections to continue reporting safely."

Maldonado, who founded Agencia Mexicana de Noticias Noventa Grados in Morelia in 2007, covers a range of subjects, including crime and violence, corruption, and socioeconomic issues.

A translation of the threatening email said, "We have had conversations with you for some time in relation to the activities you have in your pamphlet, because [you are not] a journalist ... We believed you had disciplined yourself and had understood as other colleagues have, but we realize, reading your last articles, that you have not."

Martin Godoy, Center
The email says that information published by Noventa Grados has become "uncomfortable" to Martín Godoy, the state attorney general, and Rodrigo González Ramírez, who heads the state's anti-kidnapping unit. The email ends with a series of implicit death threats, including a reference to Rogelio Arredondo Guillén, the director of Investigation and Analysis of the state attorney general's office, who was killed on July 1, and warns Maldonado that if he writes one more article it will be his last.   

Martin Godoy, State Atty Gen Michoacan 
On July 13, Noventa Grados published an article about alleged ties between Arredondo and organized crime, following earlier piecesin March and May alleging ties between Michoacán law enforcement and other crime, such as gasoline theft.

Maldonado told CPJ that he believes the death threats are a direct response to at least some of those articles. A spokesperson for the state attorney general's office said she was not authorized to provide CPJ with comment on the case. Several phone calls that CPJ made to the office of Godoy on July 24 and 25 went unanswered.

Maldonado told CPJ he has been threatened before over his coverage of law enforcement. The Federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists has provided him with protection since 2015, after he and his family received several threats over his reporting. He told CPJ the mechanism provided him with a panic button. A spokesperson for the mechanism told CPJ yesterday that his institution is reviewing possibly providing additional safety measures for Maldonado, including police protection.

Ricardo Sánchez Pérez del Pozo, the federal Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes committed against Freedom of Expression, told CPJ yesterday that he is aware of the threats and that his institution, which works under the auspices of the federal Attorney General's Office, has opened an investigation. He said that Maldonado needs to give an official statement to the FEADLE. The journalist told CPJ he intends to do that as soon as possible.

Salvador Adame Pardo whose Burned Body was found
on June 14 after being missing for over a month
     

Journalists in Morelia, Michoacan state, demand justice for killed and missing colleagues, including Salvador Adame Pardo. Death threats were sent to an editorial director of a website in the state in July. 

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. In 2017, at least eight journalists have been murdered and one was abducted there, according to CPJ research, CPJ is investigating the case of a fifth journalist to determine if his killing is directly related to his work.


32 comments:

  1. Probably the best thing to do is publicize the threat, in places like BB. I'm sure journalists look to BB for news and by printing the actual threat, this "outs" the perps somewhat.
    It is up to the journalists to protect each other because the govt wont.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yaqui great articles.You have just been posting up a storm lately more than anyone.
    The threat to this journalist sounds like it's government so how does the government 'investigate itself'?Protection in this case might mean diddly-squat.(nada)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Onother journalist? It is not safe fot them in Mexico

    ReplyDelete
  4. CJNG stil trying kill more innocents

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yea lol so funny. They are asking for protection from the same people who are making the threats. To be completely honest, if he thinks he is living in a freedom of speech society, he's wrong. His only bet is to heed the warning and shut up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He aint just asking the govt for protection, hes telling everyone that the govt is letting these threats happen and doing little to stop it.

      Delete
    2. That's not his "only bet". Another option is to continue doing what he thinks is right, and at least if he dies, he was trying to improve his country.

      Delete
    3. 3:5p men need to learn to recognize their wrong ways,
      Jornalists are not suppossed to confront the mexican government "dignitaries with just their pens" , this one needs to apology and submit and publicly comment on the graciousness of "GODOY and his gang of dignitaries" before somebody eats his face and disappears his ass,
      BB commenters will get persecuted someday too, anonymousness will not save them, according to "Pegassus", REPENT PERROS!

      Delete
    4. 436, is that you, Raul?

      Delete
    5. So we're allowing threats to BB commenters here now?

      Delete
  6. Sadly enough the demand that the “Mexican authorities should swiftly investigate“ is the same as asking them to shoot themselves in the foot.

    Its hard to believe that our neighbour is one of the most deadly places in the WORLD for journalists and in our own MSM there is a total black-out on the subject.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did you read my post from a couple of days ago ?
      UN human rights experts from Geneva are taking notice.......and demanding independent investigations due to the Spyware issue......
      The world does seem to move at either lightening speed or a snails pace.

      Delete
    2. 6:45 yes, canadiana, we read even Harvard Law School is getting involved, but mass mjrdering assassins like FECAL and ernesto "La Neta" Zedillo are professors being granted asylum there and in Yale too, I see no action against them from anybody on those "universities", sorry YAQUI, I CONFUSED YOU WIT CANADIANA, sorry canadiana too.

      Delete
  7. Hey guys, What became of el piolin, the zetas plaza boss who killed an american agent?

    ReplyDelete
  8. if the Fed prosecutor for crimes against freedom of expression works under the Fed attys office, doesn't that mean he's in bed with the same official that are threatening him? I doesn't seem like he could get much protection from them. I may be wrong but wouldn't it be safer to ask for help from an outside independent agency? I don't understand how that works.
    mn

    ReplyDelete
  9. Los chayoteros tienen mal acostumbrados a los "dignataries mexicanos"
    que les pagan pa que se callen si no tienen nada bueno que decir y les pagan más pa que hablen bien de ellos,
    pero si les saben algo malo, pos lo más seguro es que se mueren o desaparecen, y ningun pinchi "panic button" los va a salvar.
    Mejor ni anden ahi de calientes, use pseudónimos, anonimos, la comoutadora.de su mamá o hagansen espias rusos, esos les quitan las Piedras de los zapatos, gratis. Nomás los dejan mojarse el Pico un tantito.
    Casualmente, Leonel Goody was states attorney minister public when he found the remains of Kiki Camarena and Alfredo Zvala Avelar, no remember if they were the real ones but they sure were planted after being transferred from some other location, after that Leonel Goodoy and family have made a good living off politics in michuakan, Hijueputa Martin Goody de seguro anda buscando lo suyo,
    UNA DE ARABE👋________________________________________🖑

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sin querer queriendo uno le tiene que atorrar a la maldad. Solo así entienden los malandros. - Sol Prendido

    ReplyDelete
  11. Why doesnt bb here , contetas el pregunta,,,,,, q paso con el persona se llamas: el piolin, z,s plaza boss.& please, con respectar, contesta , donde matalo una " american agent. Y donde.? Maybe you journalistas -touristas , answer spanish ? Thank u 4 youre service - community- diligence, compades.y comades.via con dios , siempres tu. Semper-fi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 8:19 Google en español:
      Julian Zapata Espinoza, "El Piolin"/zetas.

      Delete
  12. Why are 98% of the citizens in Mexico safer than Chicago residents?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 10:29 propaganda comunista,
      --In mexico it is the government doing what they do best, crimes of state against all their citizens.
      --in Chicago it is gangbangers who don't know any better, handled by businessmen and politicians with private privatizing agendas, make plans, move out of the city or denounce your alderman, he is probably a mafioso or know who his rivals are heating up his plaza,
      it is the same all over the US, LOCAL POLITICS, "business"

      Delete
  13. So many deaths, murders, disappearance are reported. What can we say will be the end of Narcos and corrupt politicians? What resolution is there for the innocent people in Mexico. I see the main problem as people working to have money, screw everyone else, haste un lado por que aqui voy yo!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 10:56 the US foreign relations counc should know how far and for how long they are planning to fight their war od drugs by killing all the innocent mexican cities they need to kill...
      --EPN's numbers according to some 170 000 murdered in 4.5 year's

      Delete
  14. Michoacan is the Tamaulipas of S. Mexico

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michoacan is more orginized than tamaulipas when it cones to organized crime. Its one of the places where more reporters actually talk about the corruption in that area. The difference is that in other parts of Mexico the reporters are scared to expose corruption. Just like the reporter who got killed in Sinaloa last month or so. The government and cartels don't want to be exposed and whem they do get exposed, they usually kill the reporters.

      Delete
  15. What is the resolution to end all the killings and violence in Mexico? The problem is people are out for themselves, haste un lado por que aqui voy yo!Innocent people cannot turn to law enforcement and let alone politicians, they are corrupt as well. God bless the innocent, God bless the children, God help Mexico.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Rogelio Guillen looked so sad and serious in the news article photos. I couldn't understand much of the articles I read, as they are all in Spanish, but it's sad that he was killed.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Vía con Dios as well compade Marine! You made my dia. Hurra

    El Jarochito

    ReplyDelete
  18. Fuck the Mexican Cartels!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Best bet for him is to go to a US Consulate or Embassy and request asylum due to a credible fear for his life. Going to the guys that work with the cartels for protection is like a murder victim willingly going to his murderers and asking them to keep him alive.

    ReplyDelete

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