AFP in the news
"Reporting from the Kingdom of Fear" by Leticia Pineda, Mexico correspondent for AFP
In Mexico, journalists put their lives on the line every day investigating the suffering drug cartels leave in their wake. The traffickers’ ruthlessness, violence and impunity have made Mexico one of the world’s most dangerous countries for newsgatherers.
Some 91 media workers have been killed and another 17 have gone missing here since 2000. One of the latest was a 32-year-old mother-of-two, Anabel Flores Salazar, who worked as a crime reporter for a newspaper in the eastern state of Veracruz. Her half-naked body was found dumped on a road in central Mexico in February, just days after an armed group wearing military-like clothes burst into her home before dawn and took her away.
Risks taken by journalists working in the regions, where the drug cartels reign with impunity, are immense.
An example: In 2011, AFP photographer Ronaldo Schemidt and I were in Durango, in Mexico’s north, where some 300 bodies had been discovered. No one wanted to talk to us. When we approached people, they would stop talking, slam doors in our face (...).