tecnológico de monterrey, campus ciudad de méxico @fmepi

Tecnológico de Monterrey, www.fundacionmepi.orgCampus Ciudad de México @FMEPI

Tecnológico de Monterrey, www.fundacionmepi.orgMexico City Campus @FMEPI

ORIGEN OF THE INVESTIGATIONORIGEN OF

INVESTIGATION

CONFERENCE IN MONTERREY:

•In May during a conference in Monterrey journalists from Taumalipas and Nuevo Leon told us about their being taken hostage.

•They told us that in Taumalipas the journalist must meet with the Narcos every three months to clarify what they were allowed to publish.

Journalists express fear and frustration over narco power

4 Journalists Kidnapped: An opperation and negotiations to free them

Monday, Aug. 2, 2010 at 18:05

http://mexico.cnn.com/nacional/2010/08/02/el-secuestro-de-4-periodistas-negociacion-y-un-operativo-para-liberarlos

MEPI BEGINS ASKING QUESTIONS

Just how much power do drug

cartels have over the media?

How do we gage the intensity and

level of violence in the country?

AND FINDS…

1. Nobody had quantified the level of violence

2.These questions could not be answered

MEPI looks to quantify the anecdotal reports on attacks against the local media and to begin filling-in the gaps in the stories.

HOW TO QUANTIFY THE NARCO POWER OVER MEDIA: by counting the number of stories the local media is actually publishing on narco-violence.

HOW TO QUANTIFY THE JOURNALISTS’ FEAR: by counting how many articles about narco related crimes are signed by the journalists.

THE INVESTIGATION


ORIGEN OF THE INVESTIGATION

METHODOLOGY

Methodology: How to quantify violence against media

Data Sources:• CODED NEWSPAPERS: 11 local newspapers from areas known for narco related

violence.

• PERSONAL ACCOUNTS: We hired correspondents in each city to give us a personal report on how they did their jobs – emphasizing ways that they were restricted.

• PRE-EXISTING DATABASES: We found narco related crime statistics and narco executions for the entire country. (This was a major problem half-way through 2010). For the end of the year we used statistics gathered by a sociologist and coupled this with the number of crime stories that mentioned executions.

• Our final database was checked against existing databases.


•Pulso: San Luis Potosi•Norte, de Ciudad Juarez•El Diario de Morelos, de Morelos•El Dictamen, de Veracruz•El Norte, de Monterrey•La Voz de Morelia, de Michoacan•El Noroeste, de Sinaloa•Mural, de Guadalajara•Milenio Hidalgo, de Hidalgo•El Mañana, de Nuevo Loredo •El Imparcial, Hermosillo

NEWSPAPERS

SURVEYED



FINDINGS

Findings

1. Drug cartels have infiltrated the media and have a strong control over legit institutions – to a degree that had not been completely understood.

• Shown by the lack of cooperation and consistency among local media.

• And the shockingly low level of reports on narco related activity throughout Mexican media. The most extreme example being Taumalipas.

2. The cartels act like organizations where each have their own method of threatening the media.


ORIGEN OF THE INVESTIGATIONExtreme Example:

Taumalipas

STATE: TAMAULIPASNEWSPAPER: EL MAÑANA

Local Cartels: Los Zetas and The Golfo Cartel

In 2010, El Mañana reported 3501 articles related to violence

Only 8% of these articles linked the violence to narcotraficantes.

7 of 10 focused on crime in Nuevo Laredo, Texas and not in México.

The rest focused on crimes committed by individuals.

El Mañana reports crime in Loredo Texas ignoring local crime by drug cartels. Totally Silenced

They systemmatically ignore crimes by narcotraficantes

AND INSTEADFocus solely on drug busts, or people arrested for possession of a small amount of drugs.

In the section “Security” 9 out of every 10 articles only discussed robberies, domestic violence, sexual violence, and the occasional drunk driving accident.

According to official statistics, Tamaulipas has 573 murders in 2010.

El Mañana, Tamaulipas: An extreme example of the media silenced

EL MAÑANADa mujer golpiza a su hija de 4 años

Miércoles, 25 de Agosto de 2010

Sources

•http://www.elmanana.com.mx/notas.asp?id=197267

•http://mexico.cnn.com/nacional/2010/08/25/la-marina-encuentra-una-fosa-con-72-cuerpos-en-un-rancho-en-tamaulipas

Front Page Story

• On Aug. 25, 2010, a massive grave with 72 bodies (58 men and 14 women) were found on a ranch in the northeast of San Fernando, Tamaulipas.

•All national media covered the story, whereas the local paper where the event had occurred, El Mañana, had a frontpage story about a woman jailed for hitting her 14 year old son.



CARTELS ARE ORGANIZATIONS WITH THEIR OWN

METHOD OF CONTROL


Cartels with paramilitary training – e.g. Los Zetas – threaten journalists with extreme violence.

In the last 5 years La Familia en Michoacan has managed to secure complete control over the press.

More established cartels – e.g. Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels – tend to verbally threaten journalists first before retailing with violence.



LACK OF REPORTS

IN GENERAL

OFFICIAL

MEDIA



MEPI CONTINUES TO MONITOR THE

INTENSITY OF NARCO

VIOLENCE


We have finished coding the newspapers for 2010 and have begun 2011.

We have found that the numbers continue to be worrisome.

The situation is the same if not worse.

ORIGEN OF THE INVESTIGATIONTwitter

Facebook

Blogs

Cartels attack non-traditional media

FACEBOOK PAGE: Un Grito de Ayuda por Tamaulipas


Two youths were tortured and hung as examples after denouncing cartel activity on twitter.


Journalist Found Beheaded in Tamaulipas

Sept. 25, 2011



CONCLUSION

OUR OBJECTIVE: •This was an investigation of a social phenomenon. Our main objective was to explain the lack of reporting on narco crimes.

RESULTS:• Although our investigation was to monitor media reporting, the end result was an exercise in how to gage and measure the level of violence in Mexico. CURRENTLY:• Since the presentation of this work last year, we have finished the database for 2010 and have begun 2011.

•Taking into consideration additionally attacks on alternative media, we find that the situation is increasingly getting worse.

Thank You

• For more information on what you heard today please

visit our website at:

WWW:FUNDACIONMEPI.ORG


ORIGEN OF THE INVESTIGATIONADDITIONAL

INFORMATION

STATE: MORELOSNEWSPAPER: EL DIARIO DE MORELOS

Local cartels: Los Zetas and the Pacífico Sur cartel.

For 2010 we found a total of 1063 articles about violence.

33% were tied to narcotraficantes.

4 out of every 10 articles were signed by the journalist. The last part of the year showed a 69% increase in the amount of violence and the coverage it received. In Morelos, the narco trafficking seized to be an important agenda item.

According to the official state statistics (Presidencia de México), Morelos reported 311 executions in this year.

STATE: NUEVO LEÓNNEWSPAPER: EL NORTE

Area controlled by Los Zetas and the Golfo cartel.

In 2010 there were 2670 articles related to violence, 18% mentioned organized crime.

3/10 were signed by the reporter: that is, 70% of the narco related articles were not signed by journalist.

Despite these figures the number of articles related to narcotrafficking did rise 50% in the last half of the year and the local reporters said that they covered all stories, including executions which rose above 15%.

Of the 7 out of 10 unsigned articles that mentioned wounded persons, kidnappings, or executions, t he local media gave them the title of victims of passionate crimes.

In 2010, Nuevo León had 401 executions, according to offical statistics.

STATE: CHIHUAHUANEWSPAPER: NORTE

Area controlled by Los Zetas and the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels.

In 2010 there were 3886 articles related to violence, 15% mentioned organized crime.

In the last half of 2010 the coverage on narcotraficantes was 60%, but only 5 out of 6 of these articles referenced executions; which means there was a difference between the number of executions reported by the news and the official report which showed an average of 300 a month.

Lastely, we found that organized crime was beginning to attack and kill women. And, local media reported them as narco-executions.

Nuevo León.The Last 6 Months of 2010

*June’s headline: massive graves left by narcos. Find an increased number of decapitated victims. *More violence methods, such as pouring gasoline on people and lighting them on fire (June 16, 2010) *Small fires started by granades thrown into houses. Armed group burns house after kidnapping three (June 28, 2010) *Each month there is at last three granade attacks Granades hitting gas stations (although no explosions). And 10 different police stations were attacked. *At the end of October there was an attack in the Plaza Municipal de Guadalupe that left 14 wounded.

*Frequent attacks against the department of public and highway security, as well as on local police who are often kidnapped in their house o attacked when they are on patrol. Granades also attack police buildings, but the majority are targeted at the local authority, with only one attack against the Federal police.

* In October, the chief of public transit, Garza Mendoza, took part in the protection of a group of hired assasins who blocked local roads in the Miguel Alemán highway in order to carry out their kidnappings.

*Auto thefts sky rocketed, although the local press lists it as petty crime, these cars are used to commit crimes carried out by organized crime; specifically their famous “narcobloqueos” - road blocks.

*Ricardo Arias, general director of the Mexican Association of Insurance, reported that the incidence of auto theft has risen 72.2% in Nuevo León

Morelos Chihuahua*June was considered the second mos violent month with an average of one murder a day.

*The majority of the crimes are carried out by the Pacifico Sur cartel.

*The press did not cover many of the crime here. The president of the Grupo Diario de Morelos, Miguel Angel Bracamontes, made the statement: “DO NOT CARRY OUT INVESTIGATIONS ON NARCOTRAFICANTES (July 28, 2010)

*The average age of the victims of narcotraficantes is between15-30.

*From August there were some notes on house or small businesses being burned, but the majority of the time the people do not report the crime.

*Family executions (father-son/uncle-nephew)

*Se comienza a dar el fenómeno de las ejecuciones de taxistas (manos amputadas o calcinados)

*The assasination of women appears to be associated with organized crime and is on the rise. Around the middle of 2010 the media began to link these crimes with narcotraficantes.

*Executions occurring inside of establishments or they would execute or kidnap someone inside their hom.

*Attacking the family as a form of retaliating against rivals.

*In September 289 violent deaths were recorded, of which 42 were women. In October, the second woman to be decapitated appeared.

*The attacks are mainly against the Federal and local police. By the middle of the year there had already been 66 policemen.

tecnológico de monterrey, campus ciudad de méxico @fmepi

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