“Perhaps the most devastating effect of this unprecedented wave of violence is the fact that people in Veracruz are being deprived of vital information of one of the issues that is obviously having a very serious effect in the lives of the people, which is the level of violence, the number of killings,” said Carlos Lauría, who monitors Latin America for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The self-censorship, he added, “has a direct impact on the quality of democracy.”

As other journalists have laid down their notebooks and cameras and fled Veracruz, Mr. Báez, 46, took pride in staying behind and not allowing the criminals to impose their will. He taught his children to watch for suspicious people and cars, but also indulged passions like painting the mountainous Xalapa landscape and writing romantic poetry, which were quite removed from his nighttime job of documenting the carnage on the streets.

“We cannot give in to fear, we cannot live our lives afraid to go out, afraid to see friends, afraid to do what we do,” a colleague recalled his saying earlier this year, after an investigative reporter for a national magazine was killed in her apartment here.

Mr. Morales, the photographer, who is 54, has a similar philosophy, saying, “You have to accept the fear, but not let it paralyze you.” He made clear he photographs many things besides dead bodies, which he believes keeps him safe.

Image Credit... The New York Times

“And I don’t label the dead or say who was who in a confrontation,” he said after stumbling upon the still-hot crime scene on a recent night.

Others have stopped reporting altogether.

“I cannot go on here,” said one journalist, her voice trembling this week as she made plans to leave. She said she was told by a state official that she was on a list of journalists believed to be under threat, which was circulated among government officials, though none would acknowledge its existence.