"Mama, I'm Wounded.. I've Been Shot.."
Nuevo Laredo (Mexico):
The voice on the other end of the phone was scared and anguished yet strangely calm. Instantly recognizable, the caller gasped the words.
"Mama, I'm wounded. I've been shot. I love you."
That day, April 5, was the last time Beatriz Escamilla heard the voice of her daughter, Lupita, shot nine times as she arrived at work.
Eleven days later, Guadalupe García Escamilla was dead, the latest journalist killed in Mexico's bloody drug war.
The police reporter for radio XHNOE-FM joined an overall casualty list that stretches into the hundreds.
Her killing remains unsolved, with the investigation hinging on a critical question: Was she gunned down because she was a tough investigative reporter exposing organized crime, or because she herself had become ensnared with one drug cartel and was executed by another?
Some American and Mexican investigators and fellow reporters say Lupita was compromised, that she had been working for the Gulf cartel.
Mexican authorities are checking whether a drug gang was paying her for information and to influence coverage.
"Her activities and subsequent death could be tied to organized crime. Perhaps she worked for members of organized crime," says Rogelio García Fernández, assistant attorney general in the state of Chihuahua.
Lupita's family rejects such claims, insisting she was untainted, that she did nothing wrong.
Some local media executives say Lupita tried to manipulate their coverage to play down the seriousness of violent incidents and to portray her cartel contacts in a better light.
In the perilous, unpredictable world of drug trafficking, where many things are unknowable, the case of the woman many considered the voice of Nuevo Laredo underscores the potential trap that Mexican journalists face as they cover the illicit drug trade.
Oct 01, 2005
Lennox Samuels & Alfredo Corchado, Dallas Morning News, TX
see also: International freedom of Expression eXchange
Nuevo Laredo (Mexico):The voice on the other end of the phone was scared and anguished yet strangely calm. Instantly recognizable, the caller gasped the words.
"Mama, I'm wounded. I've been shot. I love you."
That day, April 5, was the last time Beatriz Escamilla heard the voice of her daughter, Lupita, shot nine times as she arrived at work.
Eleven days later, Guadalupe García Escamilla was dead, the latest journalist killed in Mexico's bloody drug war.
The police reporter for radio XHNOE-FM joined an overall casualty list that stretches into the hundreds.
Her killing remains unsolved, with the investigation hinging on a critical question: Was she gunned down because she was a tough investigative reporter exposing organized crime, or because she herself had become ensnared with one drug cartel and was executed by another?
Some American and Mexican investigators and fellow reporters say Lupita was compromised, that she had been working for the Gulf cartel.
Mexican authorities are checking whether a drug gang was paying her for information and to influence coverage.
"Her activities and subsequent death could be tied to organized crime. Perhaps she worked for members of organized crime," says Rogelio García Fernández, assistant attorney general in the state of Chihuahua.
Lupita's family rejects such claims, insisting she was untainted, that she did nothing wrong.
Some local media executives say Lupita tried to manipulate their coverage to play down the seriousness of violent incidents and to portray her cartel contacts in a better light.
In the perilous, unpredictable world of drug trafficking, where many things are unknowable, the case of the woman many considered the voice of Nuevo Laredo underscores the potential trap that Mexican journalists face as they cover the illicit drug trade.
Oct 01, 2005
Lennox Samuels & Alfredo Corchado, Dallas Morning News, TX
see also: International freedom of Expression eXchange
