Mexico border journalist says violence is worse than ever seen before

Mexican federal police in an armored truck patrol Reynosa, where drug violence has spilled into the streets nearly daily. Mexican federal police in an armored truck patrol Reynosa, where drug violence has spilled into the streets nearly daily. Photo: Billy Calzada / San Antonio Express-News Photo: Billy Calzada / San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Mexico border journalist says violence is worse than ever seen before 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

REYNOSA - In parts of his hometown, Francisco “Paco” Rojas makes certain his hands are in plain view.

A hand slunk behind the back or below the steering wheel has a tendency to invite the attention of nervous drug gangs fighting for control of Reynosa’s lucrative smuggling corridor.

“If there is a row, keep down,” Rojas explained, “and do not run. They will shoot you, even if you’re innocent.”

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After years of navigating the violent clashes that at times grip this sprawling factory town, residents have adopted techniques to mitigate the danger. These are a few of the measures that Rojas, a 50-year-old radio journalist, uses to keep safe as he reports. And they have served him well these past few weeks as the city has come under siege.

The violence had been slowly building earlier this year. Then, in the early hours of April 22, federal forces killed Juan Julian Loisa Salinas, known as “Comandante Toro” the local Gulf Cartel boss. Cars and buildings were set ablaze in that confrontation. Since then, clashes between rival factions of the cartel spill into the streets nearly every day, leaving behind a trail of 28 dead so far, and there will almost certainly be more in the days to come.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Three years ago, Mexico launched Plan Tamaulipas, an ambitious effort to quell violence. Instead, insecurity has deepened. In one of the world’s deadliest countries, Tamaulipas is one of its most troubled states, and Reynosa among its most dangerous cities, especially for journalists, who are compelled to self-censor or avoid coverage of organized crime and public corruption altogether. Amid the bullets and reporting limitations, some local journalists have taken on the role of war correspondents in their backyard.

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“Narco trafficking and corruption have expanded like a weed through society,” Rojas said. “Your neighbor could be one of them, you never know.”

One recent afternoon, Rojas called on colleagues at La Raza, the radio station where he works, to pore over social media to help him navigate clear of possible gun battles. Over a career that spans three decades, Rojas’ longevity in the trade might be attributed, in part, to his capacity to adapt to ever-changing security threats.

But when violent clashes erupt even these precautions seem inadequate. Wide swaths on the city’s periphery are extremely volatile, and the fractured cells of the Gulf cartel fighting for control of the Reynosa plaza are unpredictable, lashing out indiscriminately at bystanders and local businesses.

“Terrible,” Rojas said of the current state of the city. “Despite the years of violence we’ve never seen this before.”

To advise residents of gun battles, the city issues code red alerts, often several at once as the violence spreads, leading Reynosa Mayor Maki Ortiz Dominguez to make a desperate call for peace. For his part, Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca, the Tamaulipas governor, delivered a 7-minute message to citizens, pledging to aggressively pursue crime and reestablish trust in a state reeling from a string of public corruption scandals.

Authorities over the weekend found a tunnel connecting the state jail in Reynosa to a wooden house outside the prison, and two others storing weapons and drugs. The tunnel was 16 feet deep, 45 feet long and 4 feet wide. Seemingly improbable discoveries such as these occur with such regularity that they are considered almost routine.

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Yet in a series of raids on casinos, junk yards and bars, Mexican authorities this past week sought to undercut the illicit cash flowing drug gangs. At one junk yard raid, surrounded by tense men carrying assault rifles, Miguel Dominguez, a veteran newspaper correspondent, hinted at the inherent danger of writing about the crackdown.

During the war between the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, six of his colleagues disappeared, a fate he narrowly escaped, said Dominguez, 51. After those harrowing days, journalists insulated themselves from criminal groups and corrupt officials, choosing to tailor coverage to avoid scrutiny and publishing stories without bylines.

Social media rushed in to fill the void left by trained journalists, a consequence fraught with problems. While vital, the social media regularly distort events. Besides, anonymity on social media is no certainty of security. In late 2014, Dr. Maria del Rosario Fuentes Rubio, a prolific member of #reynosafollow was kidnapped and disappeared.

“We take measures that affect the quality of the journalism,” Dominguez said. “It’s a instinct that each of us has taken to survive.”

In May 2014, with security reaching a crisis point, security officials unveiled Plan Tamaulipas. The state had the highest rate of kidnapping in the country, and state and local level law enforcement institutions and governance were weak. By surging resources to Tamaulipas, the federal government has backed efforts to restore public security in the state.

With Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, Mexico’s secretary of the Interior, visiting Reynosa on Monday, Cabeza de Vaca called for financial resources to increase the state police force from about 2,500 to 9,000, but Chong said that Tamaulipas has all it needs to take on organized crime, adding that the government strategy is not just about making arrests.

“It’s to go further,” Chong told a room packed with journalists. “It’s to ensure the bosses down to the lookouts face justice.”

But Mexico’s drug war ranked as the second deadliest conflict in the world in 2016, claiming 23,000 lives, according to a recent survey by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Only Syria was worse off.

Drug-fueled organized crime has made Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with the National Human Rights Commission reporting 125 killed since 2000. Javier Valdez, veteran journalist, was killed Monday in Sinaloa near the offices of his newspaper. Although shocking, these incidents against journalists these attacks are carried out with near total impunity.

“His loss is a blow to Mexican journalism and to the Mexican public, who see a shadow of silence spreading across the country,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Earlier this month, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto pledged to prioritize the safety of journalists for the remainder of his term in office, which ends next year. Peña Nieto also guaranteed to fund a federal protection mechanism that would have run out of money in October.

Safety of any sort is difficult to discern on streets crawling with men armed with assault rifles. For journalists, every day is a frenetic search for the next battle, and how to best inform the community.

Rojas is careful not to utter certain names on his radio program, and he decided long ago that some investigations were not worth the risk, he said, as a caravan of heavily armed state police sped past his studio that overlooks a city plaza.

Rojas received word that there would be more fighting in the evening, and he was preparing for the long night ahead.

“It’s tough,” Rojas said. “Now I have to file.”

anelsen@express-news.net

Twitter: @amnelsen