Employees of El Norte news daily in Nuevo Leon state were threatened with "consequences" if the newspaper failed to pay MEX $3,000 a month in protection money, according to Mexican news accounts.
A Thursday news article featured in AnimalPolitico.com said that a truck driven by a distributor carrying 800 copes of the newspaper was stopped Tuesday by armed suspects who apparently hit the driver, pointed weapons and left the message of the demand.
El Norte, as with many newspapers in northeastern Mexico, are under near constant threat of harm from organized crime, crime including threats of harm if information is published to extortion, a crime which is the most pervasive in Mexico.
Drug war news in Tamaulipas is at a premium due to threats from organized crime, especially in Nuevo Laredo, the home of Los Zetas drug cartel.
According to the AnimalPolico.com article, El Norte offices was attacked three times last July, two of them on July 10th including attacks using hand grenades in their La Silla and Linda Vista offices in Monterrey Almost three weeks later, the offices for the Sierra Madre edition was firebombed.
Newspapers are not the only victims of organized crime. Offices of Televisa and other television stations have been attacked in the past in Monterrey as well as in Tamaulipas' border cities.
The threat issued to El Norte specifically demanded payment of protection money to continue distributing newspapers in northern Monterrey.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburgcom and Borderlandbeat.com. His latest work of non-fiction, the Wounded Eagle, Volume 2, can be found at Smashwords and Amazon.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
Zzz keep taking out snitcholas
ReplyDeleteZzz are to busy right now washing cars and don't have time to worry about Sinaloas, I saw some of them here in Nuevo Laredo standing in a street corner on Guerrero Ave, but they didn't have guns or radios, they all had chamois and micro fiber rags and a 5 gallons bucket of soapy water.
Deleteit's always the government doing this shit. They blame it on the narcs but they don't care unless their names are published. Look at all the reporters that have been killed. They had been reporting on crime forever and it wasn't until they had criticized the government or embarrassed them or pointed out corruption that they got killed. It's the state that is committing most of the murders in this "Drug War", they are doing a social cleansing all while blaming it on the traffickers so that they can claim more money via the Merida Initiative. They don't use the money or materials to combat crime, they pocket it themselves.
ReplyDeleteYou right for reporters to report all the violence in the área is no good bussiness for the government
DeleteThe press is called "the fourth power"in Mexico,it is no wonder the zetas neutralized or bought it,the silence of the press helped the zetas infiltrate so much territory from north to south,they had to expand east to west,and drag the people to the vice,and themselves to competition, the silence they bought allowed them to OVEREXTEND till they could not handle it anymore,not without paying,plata o plomo seems to be the common denominator, zetas chose plomo,their shortcomings at the top are taking care of the bottom,no wonder they had no generals but the ones up the ass! but ... "chapo is losing?
Delete8:51
ReplyDeletealmost right, amigo.
actually they pocket 50% - then turn in the other half for news publicity as "captured items".
The money, goes to the governors military zone commanders,police, the press,to the heads of the gangs,and half of the table scraps go to the cats and the dogs to fight over,that is the root problem. a Messiah is needed in Mexico but will he come? I don't know but Judas and his children are there at work,collecting and collecting until HE comes,and the press ready to see nothing, hear nothing,and report nothing. SELLOUTS!!!
Deletenewspapers still are very useful in Mexico, you can roll em up and hit the children,the cat and the dog on the head with them, you can hit the old lady on the pompas too! the 4th power,the press,have become una bola de chayoteros(that is press corps on the take,bought and paid for,the money and benefits they take is called El chayote)
DeleteI think its the very own government that doesnt want the press talking about anything. the cleanup of Mexico needs to start at the top, jailing Presidents, and Governors, down to mayors.. all corrupt pieces of shit..
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, we have already started! There are already a bunch of corrupt former "Governors" in jail. Same with other fucking corrupt "Public Servers". Mexico is making a comeback, dammit. It might take a few generations, but, we will eventually get rid of most of the corrupt motherfuckers!
Delete3:15...a few generations? That is scary, nothing will be left behind,smart people needed to get together and work on it ASAP! it has been long enough already,any suggestions?
DeleteYou can't stop mexicans from drug dealing take all cartels out and people are still gonna drug deal its the circle of life ..you got to understand that cartels have to be violent againts snitches because they're are trying to ruin something what would you do if your rich and some annoying asshole trys to steal all your money
ReplyDeleteUnderstanding vice to tolerate it,is not the goal,and worse than drugaddiction,greed is the root cause,there are millionaire narcs still bitching about the"business",killing and dying for it,to each their own,some governors prefer as snack along the way, very young boys and girls like "el gober precioso" la trevi and sergio andrade,arabes left and right,and all of their customers in high places that help the get away with it like "chente"
DeleteStop being cowards and start hunting them. They expect you to be afraid and don't expect you to come after their sorry arses. There are some real men left in Mexico, i think.
ReplyDeleteProblem is since ancient times, THE REDEEMERS WILL GET CRUCIFIED! the power of the rabble is that great that,keeps the redeemers cautiously off to the side and the rabble watching Don Francisco Pinochet.
DeleteHey yall, its my anniversary, partying right now but still checked in, sup chivis
ReplyDeleteRonco
Chivis sup, love ur page
ReplyDeleteBB is important, unique, courageous. Thank you!
DeleteWIKIPEDIA: "After the discovery in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico on November 9, 2011 of the body of the fourth blogger to be killed in the space of a month, for posting online information about drug cartels, The Daily Dot, MSNBC and Der Spiegel each produced an article outlining the dangers such internet activity posed. For comment, The Daily Dot [2] and MSNBC [10] turned to Borderland Beat administrator "Overmex", while Der Spiegel [9]
interviewed Borderland Beat contributor "Gerardo". In all the interviews the two bloggers reiterated their determination to continue reporting on the ongoing drug war, and not to be intimidated by the drug cartels' threats and actions.
Quoting from an article in Bloomberg Businessweek: "To protect contributors, the editors of the blog Borderland Beat, which has a reputation as one of the most reliable sources of information on Mexico’s drug violence, say even they don’t know the identity of some of the site’s major contributors. Posts are often passed through intermediaries to protect secrecy. “They could be journalists, cops, politicians, maybe even cartel members themselves,” says one of the blog’s editors, who uses the nickname Buggs." [11]
wishful thinking if anyone in monterrey will ever stand up to those thugs,I think most people in monterrey,let me rephrase.I think most people in mexico are willing to pay a cuota or extortion as long as they are able to watch their novelas,their soccer,and all those brain numbing shows on telemierda,sorry I meant televisa.....
ReplyDelete3 thousand pesos a month ain't that much, it's like 250 dlls a month. Those thugs need a financial advisor.
ReplyDeleteWTF $281 USD per month? Really Chivis?
ReplyDeleteIt seems to low......it seems like it woukd be $2800 USD per month. I've heard of businesses paying up to $3K USD per month. Seems like a typo or these dudes need good financial advising from Salinas.
Eraclio "Clio" Cervantez
Donna, Tejas / Miguel Aleman, Tamps