opinion

It's not safe for Mexican reporters, either

A few days before the staff of a French satirical magazine was slaughtered in Paris, gunmen abducted reporter Moises Sanchez from his home near the Mexican port city of Veracruz. Sanchez was later found dead. Thirteen suspects, one-third of the local police force, are now under arrest.

While one event shocked the world and inspired an outpouring of support for free speech, the other was scarcely noticed.

Yet the ongoing killings of Mexican journalists represent a more serious challenge to civil society, democracy and free speech than the Paris massacre, because in Mexico, governmental authorities are frequently implicated in these crimes.

Statistics compiled by the Mexican Attorney General's office count more than 100 reporters killed or disappeared in the past 15 years, making the country one of the world's most dangerous for journalists. In many of these cases, suspected or confirmed involvement of local police, military and politicians makes successful prosecution unlikely and adds to a climate of impunity.

This tragic situation is especially relevant to the United States, not only because Mexico is our neighbor, but because most of these killings are connected with drug trafficking, human smuggling, gun running and other cross-border crimes.

The dead and disappeared reporters are a small percentage of the more than 20,000 Mexicans killed or disappeared since the country began a major offensive against drug cartels six years ago.

Although the government says most of the dead and disappeared were involved in criminal activity, numerous deaths of reporters, bloggers and activists make clear that innocent people are also being targeted.

Mexicans are fed up with narco-terrorism. After last year's disappearance and likely murder of 43 college students in Guerrero, protests were widespread. They are angry not only at the apparent indifference of Americans, but at the official corruption that allows the violence to continue.

"We are dying because of American drug consumption, but we also need institutions that work," said Alfredo Corchado, Mexico City bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News and author of "Midnight in Mexico: a Journey into a Country's Descent into Darkness."

Corchado spoke in November at the University of Arizona library in Tucson in connection with the launch of an open-access digital archive called The Documented Border.

The archive contains interviews with Corchado and about 60 other Mexican reporters conducted by UA journalism professors Celeste González de Bustamante and Jeannine Relly. These interviews make clear the risks Mexican journalists face, as well as the self-censorship that results.

"They say, 'Not only do I not know what's going on, I don't want to know. Because no one cares.' No story is worth your life," Corchado said.

Critics have called for a broad-based, binational response to this crisis that includes legalization of marijuana, immigration reform and a halt of U.S. weapons supplied to the Mexican military. These guns are supposed to help Mexico combat drug violence, but frequently end up in the hands of criminals.

Americans say the violence is Mexico's problem, and to some extent that's true. But until we acknowledge and honestly face our role as consumer of drugs and cheap labor, as well as the major supplier of weapons to both sides, we are consigning our Mexican friends and colleagues to a bloodbath without end.

Miriam Davidson is a freelance journalist based in Tucson.