Mexican cartel threatens to kill journalist for ‘unfair reports’
MASKED men claiming to be from Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel have threatened to murder a television journalist over her “unfair” coverage of the gang.
The Jalisco New Generation group said in a video message posted online that Azucena Uresti, a news anchor for Milenio television, had been biased in her reporting of the battle between the cartel and so-called “self-defence” vigilante groups in Michoacán state, and promised to make her “eat her words”.
The threat has sent shock waves through Mexican media. More than 120 journalists have been killed in the past 20 years and the country is the most dangerous place in the world to be a reporter outside war zones.
Yesterday, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, said: “We are going to protect Azucena and we are going to protect all Mexicans. It is our responsibility so that they are not intimidated or threatened by anyone.”
Ms Uresti is one of Mexico’s leading
‘Wherever you are, I’ll get you, and I will make you eat your words, even if they accuse me of femicide’
television reporters, chairing presidential election debates and hosting an evening news programme.
The Jalisco New Generation cartel has surpassed Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s Sinaloa gang to become the most powerful in Mexico. It has blazed a bloody trail, killing judges, congressmen, dozens of police officers and thousands of civilians. Its members once shot down a military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.
In a video shared on social media, a spokesman for the group says he is speaking on behalf of their leader, Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho”.
“I address this message directly to Milenio. I am not against freedom of expression, but I am against whoever attacks me directly,” he said.
“Azucena Uresti, wherever you are, I’ll get you, and I will make you eat your words, even if they accuse me of femicide, because you do not know me Rubén Oseguera Cervantes.”
The cartel then described the vigilante groups as drug traffickers, kidnappers and extortionists.