Breathe
By Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul
The last video in which Jaime Barrera Rodríguez, a journalist from Jalisco, appears is from Monday, March 11. The time of the recording - 14:03 - was shown in a corner of the screen while the journalist was leaving El Líder Informativo, where he hosts a radio program. After that he was never heard from again. He did not arrive to the lunch with his children or to the nightly newscast he hosts in N+.
At 9:00 p.m. that Monday, his family reported his disappearance to the state prosecutor's office and, the following day, at a press conference, the authorities announced that between 3 and 4 people, at least one with a long gun, were waiting for him outside the media outlet to "pick him up" - because without demanding a ransom it is not a kidnapping. And although at 10:30 p.m. on March 11 they found his car abandoned and a day later, during the night of March 12, they located another truck presumably linked to the journalist's disappearance -sanded and about to be painted a different color-, Tuesday night ended with no more information.
Barrera Rodríguez, who officially disappeared on March 11, 2024, is a nationally recognized local journalist from Jalisco. His disappearance combined two realities. On the one hand, the increase in generalized violence in Jalisco; and, on the other hand, the constant attacks against the press during the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, including the increase in physical violence against high-profile journalists in strong media companies.
Jalisco is the state with the most missing and unaccounted for persons in the country, with 14,967 in total, according to data from the National Search Commission and, according to an analysis by the organization Data Cívica, the profile of most of these people is: men between 30 and 44 years of age. For years, Jalisco has become one of the epicenters of violence in Mexico.
In his column in El Informador, Barrera Rodriguez writes about precisely that: about the increase in violence in Jalisco, about disappearances, about the lack of answers from authorities, about everything that exists at the intersection between security and politics. So far this year alone, he published about the violence in the context of the electoral campaigns; he criticized the insufficient public transportation routes; he announced the arrest of a leader of the Jalisco Cartel New Generation where "blockades committed by the militias of the narco" achieved his release; analyzed a series of multiple homicides in Tlaquepaque that appeared to be a dispute for territorial control between organized crime groups; criticized agreements between the State, organized crime groups and the church; was shocked by the death of police and military caused by landmines buried by narcos; commented on the video where a Wixárika woman asks the leader of the CJNG for help.
Barrera Rodríguez's journalistic work, at least in his column in El Informador, is critical of the government, which he denounces for having ceded too much ground and authority to organized crime.
"The truth is that Jaime is a rockstar of journalism," a friend, a reporter from Guadalajara, explains to me before starting to list all his collaboration spaces: "a table on Channel 44, his opinion column in El Informador, the nightly newscast on N+..." Jaime, as he is called there, is also former director of Mural, director of Milenio Jalisco, collaborator of UdeG radio and TV. "He is the most visible face of television here," commented another Jalisco journalist on March 12 in an interview for Radio Chilango.
In the most dangerous country for journalism, it is uncommon for communicators with a national presence to disappear, be murdered or visibly attacked, especially those who have the backing of large media companies. Exceptions can be counted on one hand. The last time a case involved communicators from a TV station was in 2007, when Gamaliel López and Gerardo Paredes from TV Azteca disappeared in Monterrey, Nuevo León. However, this six-year term has been characterized by criticizing, vilifying and branding the press as an enemy, to the point of leaking private information of journalists, exposing them to harassment and threats. On December 15, 2022, there was also an attack against Ciro Gómez Leyva, news anchor at Imagen Televisión and Radio Fórmula, who was shot at from two motorcycles as he was leaving the Imagen Televisión facilities. He was saved by the armor of his truck.
It might appear that widespread violence in Jalisco is the motive for Barrera Rodriguez's disappearance, but his profile -- that of a visible and recognizable 56-year-old man -- does not match that of the majority of disappeared in Jalisco and Mexico: young men between the ages of 30 and 44 who are lured by false pretenses of temporary, well-paid jobs in call centers or through online shopping to take them away. The motivation for Barrera Rodriguez's disappearance appears to be more linked to his denunciation of violence than the possible randomness of the violence.
My reporter friend, exhausted after marching to demand a prompt investigation in the case, shares with me: "A person like Jaime, we said: he will appear", and she pauses, as if convincing herself of what she is going to say... "he has to return safely".
Finally, in the early hours of March 13, 36 hours after his disappearance, the journalist was released at a crossroads, in a case almost identical to a column he published days before, entitled El rescate que no fue sobre "la privación ilegal de la libertad de un hombre de alto perfil", which appeared hours after he was picked up. In an interview, Barrera Rodriguez said that his captors questioned him about his journalistic work and beat him, as a warning.
*Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul is a political scientist and journalist. She directs Defensores de la Democracia, an organization that preserves and analyzes the work of murdered and disappeared journalists in Mexico. She has published in The Washington Post, Rest of World, Worcester Magazine, Letras Libres, Gatopardo and Ríodoce, among others. She is the author of the books El Chapo Guzmán. El Juicio del siglo ( Aguilar 2019) and Causa de muerte: cuestionar al poder ( Aguilar Ideas 2023).
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
Comments ()