You don't notice it at first. Not with the people seemingly moving as normal on the sidewalks and the happy recorded music blaring across the plaza in front of city hall to announce the annual cowboy parade. No, at first Nuevo Laredo looks like a regular border town, until the military armored car goes by a block away and rotates the heavy machine gun toward the plaza. Are the soldiers just curious? Or do they see something they want to shoot? Who will be hit if they do open fire? Then other images come into focus, like the blocks of closed shops, with for sale signs only on the most recently closed because the owners of the older, more dilapidated shops, have given up even that hope.
Continue reading The press silenced, Nuevo Laredo tries to find voice »
New York, April 18, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the loss of Mexican crime reporter Dolores Guadalupe García Escamilla, who died Saturday from injuries she suffered in an April 5 shooting in front of her radio station in the border city of Nuevo Laredo.
New York, April 11, 2005—The owner of a Mexican Gulf Coast daily that covered organized crime and drug dealing was killed in weekend ambush just hours after he oversaw the launch of a new edition of his newspaper. The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed alarm at the brazen attack and called on Mexican authorities to ensure a prompt and thorough investigation.
New York, April 6, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the vicious attack on a Mexican crime reporter, who was in critical condition today after being shot repeatedly in front of her radio station in Nuevo Laredo, a city on the Texas border beset by a wave of drug-related violence.
