Breathe
By Adela Navarro Bello
On one occasion, some six years ago, when Enrique Peña Nieto was President of Mexico and Miguel Osorio Chong was Secretary of the Interior, the latter summoned media directors from the northern states to a meeting because those states were (and are) the most affected by the violence and insecurity caused by drug trafficking and organized crime.
The meeting was held in an alternate office to the one on Bucareli Street in Mexico City that is occupied by the Government. Seven media directors from the northern states attended, among them ZETA. Osorio tried to be generous and said that he had brought them together to listen to them and to see how he and the Peña administration could help them to practice journalism in a safe manner.
He listened, was asked for, offered and granted all kinds of gadgets for the physical protection of facilities and people: security cameras, military presence, armor, protective equipment. Only two things Osorio denied: one of those present suggested not charging the IMSS contribution because they did not attend to the newspaper's collaborators in an efficient and professional manner, and ZETA's request.
When the rest of the media directors finished speaking, it was ZETA' s turn and the Secretary of the Interior asked, "And you, what can I help you with? The answer was that we would be very cheap, that we only required two things: that they provide us with information, particularly the Generals of the II Military Region and the II Zone who at that time were still heading operations against organized crime, to which Osorio Chong responded: "That is the only thing I cannot give you: information".
ZETA' s other request was more in-depth in the functioning of the Government of the Republic, which at that time had in its structure the now known as the autonomous Attorney General's Office (FGR): it was informed, although it already knew, of the threats that in the last years of the six-year term of Felipe Calderón and the first years of Peña Nieto, our Weekly had received, as well as of the attacks in which our colleagues were murdered: Héctor Félix Miranda in 1988, Luis Valero in 1997, Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco in 2004, and the one that Jesús Blancornelas survived in 1997.
He was told that the drug traffickers behind such attacks (Jorge Hank Rhon as a suspect in the case of Héctor Félix) and the threats, had been and were unpunished, protected by the then PGR, the Federal Police, judicial and ministerial police and other corporations such as municipalities. That no entity investigated and publicly denounced the misdeeds and acts of violence such as homicides, kidnappings and threats, and therefore, when journalists as in the case of ZETA revealed it in their reports, the ones attacked and threatened were the communicators, who could motivate the investigation and public denunciation so that the target of threats and attacks would not be the messengers, but them, the authorities, for doing their job.
From this request there was neither commitment nor refusal, only a reflection that everyone in their own sector should do their own thing.
Today, the climate of insecurity in Mexico is equal to or worse than at the beginning of Enrique Peña Nieto's six-year term. Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador concluded his term in office with the highest number of murders in recent history: more than 200,000, with 47 journalists murdered in the same period.
The impunity granted to criminals and drug traffickers in the six-year term of President Claudia Sheinbaum or in the administration of Marina del Pilar Avila Olmeda in Baja California, is also the same. Criminals are still not being prosecuted and these, with their impunity bought with banknotes, are violating journalists.
On Sunday, December 29, two days after the last printed edition of ZETA's 2024 was released, anonymous and undetained criminals hung a banner referring to the Semanario, due to and responding from the unpunished criminality to the report published on Friday, December 27. The narco message read: "This goes to all the traitorous CDS scumbags and newspapers the arrows have nothing to do with the brothers or truce or anything, this war is between bastards not against women and children as they did in SD and TJ. They have not been able nor will they be able to X (two crossed arrows)19 100% FLECHAS the merchants that they have killed are because the CDS themselves have been charging for their services. They want to heat the arrows ZETA newspaper where is your reputation now your notes are without foundation Tijuana for the Tijuanenses. Atte: La FEA".
For this editorial house, there are three suspected authors of the narcomanta: police officers from the State Citizen Security Force, the alleged drug trafficker Brayan Corona, alias El Apache, whose cell appears to sign the banner, and another notorious criminal who has also been identified as a "priority target": Pablo Huerta Nuño, alias El Flaquito.
All of them, police officers, and the two publicly identified as drug traffickers, have not faced justice. The first ones are given a tray and the position they hold, with which they cover themselves to commit illicit acts. The latter are provided with incapacity, inefficiency and complicity from the bribery they maintain with the authorities that should investigate them, put them on trial, request arrest warrants and detain them, but do not do so.
Once again, the safety of ZETA and those of us who work there doing investigative journalism has been violated, and the response of the authorities has been limited. The State Attorney General's Office (FGE) tried to throw the investigation for "terrorism" to the Federal Attorney General's Office in order to remove itself from investigating the events in which ZETA was mentioned.
The FGR has reacted accordingly by opening an investigation for the crime of criminal association against whoever is responsible for compromising the safety of the Semanario's journalists, and of the local authorities, only the mayor of Tijuana, Ismael Burgueño, communicated with ZETA' s management to offer his support. The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and the Mechanism for the Protection of Journalists, both state and local, offered only pyrrhic support in the form of risk analysis, panic buttons and patrols.
Journalist defense organizations issued alerts calling for an investigation by federal and state authorities to clarify the facts, investigate, determine responsibilities, arrest and prosecute, in order to guarantee the safety of journalists.
So far nothing has happened, there is no progress, no information, and the criminals who hung the banner - and those suspected of doing so - continue to freely attack the messenger, because it is evident that in Baja California, there is no authority to protect him.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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