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February 07, 2006

Nuevo Laredo Paper Attacked

While the world is arguing about press freedom in regards to the recent cartoons of Muhammed and the violent response to the cartoons, in Mexico there is another direct threat to press freedom. The newspaper El Manana in Nueva Laredo was attacked last night by masked gunmen who are most likely tied to organized crime and drug running.

Masked men barged into the offices of this city's major daily newspaper and opened fire with assault rifles and a grenade Monday night, critically injuring one reporter.

Five bullets struck Jaime Orozco Tey, a veteran reporter for El Manana. No one else suffered serious injuries.

Orozco remained at a local hospital in critical condition.

The unidentified gunmen remained at large Monday night.

I am wondering how much attention this will get from other newspapers. The San Antonio Express News had the story on its front page today, but they write a lot about Nuevo Laredo. This is the same city that had to fire all of its cops because they were more dangerous than its criminals and whose chief of police was shot a few hours after taking office that I wrote about here.

Posted by Pete at February 7, 2006 05:31 PM

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Comments

I googled Nuevo Laredo to check the news coverage on this story, and it appears it's been picked up by a number of papers all over the world, at least as a mention. These stories rarely seem to gain momentum because they are covered so much as isolated incidents that no one realizes, as the E-N rightly pointed out, that Mexico is one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist in the world. Which reminds me, did you happen to pick up Robert Rivard's book "Trail of Feathers"? I'm thinking about reading it.

Posted by: pamela at February 8, 2006 10:13 AM