Mexican newspaper offices hit by gunfire in Sinaloa state capital
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[October 19, 2024]
By MARIA VERZA
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Assailants fired a dozen gunshots at a building
housing the newspaper El Debate in the embattled northern Mexico state
of Sinaloa, the media outlet said Friday.
The newspaper is based in the state capital, Culiacan, where rival
factions of the Sinaloa Cartel have been staging bloody battles.
The newspaper said it found at least four bullet impacts on the
building’s walls, and more gunfire hit newspaper vehicles parked in
front of the offices late Thursday. The paper said that no one was
injured.
The Mexican Media Alliance, a press freedom group, called it “a direct
attack against press freedom and right of the public to be informed.”
El Debate said that the assailants arrived in two vehicles and stopped
briefly in front of the building. One gunman got out and opened fire
with a rifle, before they sped off.
Threats against journalists and their sources have increased
exponentially since the latest round of factional fighting broke out
after two Sinaloa drug capos — one from each faction — flew to the
United States and were arrested there.
Drug lords Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López were
apprehended in the United States after flying there in a small plane on
July 25.
Zambada later claimed he was kidnapped and forced aboard the plane by
Guzmán López, causing a violent battle between Zambada’s faction and the
“Chapitos” group led by the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El
Chapo” Guzmán.
Journalists have reported being stopped by gunmen on roadways outside
Culiacan and told they couldn't cover the continuing gunbattles
happening on the outskirts of the city on an almost daily basis.
The fear is well founded; in 2022, one of El Debate's columnists, Luis
Enrique Ramírez, was abducted and killed in Culiacan. His beaten body
was found wrapped in plastic on a dirt road outside the city.
In 2017, Javier Valdez — an award-winning reporter for the weekly
publication Rio Doce who specialized in covering drug trafficking and
organized crime — was slain in Sinaloa's state capital.
Ismael Bojórquez, Rio Doce's director, said that “as in other wars, we
journalists are the ones who get caught in the crossfire.”
Adrian López, the director of El Noroeste, another local newspaper,
agreed with the war analogy.
“This obliges us to rethink the protocols and how we cover events in
this context, because, sadly, it is practically a war at certain times,”
López said.
There is little doubt that the warring cartel factions in Sinaloa want
to intimidate the media into not reporting on their battles, and that
has forced local residents to turn largely to social media for reports
on when it might be safe to go out, and where the danger is.
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National Guards patrol the streets in Culiacan, Sinaloa state,
Mexico, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo)
Those social media platforms were full on Friday of videos of burning
vehicles, bodies and cartel convoys speeding through towns.
As usual, there was no confirmation of that from state authorities, who
have consistently tried to downplay the violence.
On Thursday, hours before the attack on the newspaper, Sinaloa Gov.
Ruben Rocha said “there is nothing to worry about” and “everything is
under control.”
But the truth leaks out around the edges: Sinaloa State University told
students that it was canceling in-person classes Friday because of “the
acts of violence in and around the Sinaloa state capital.”
Those online videos sometimes depict scenes that could reasonably be
compared to a war: Two weeks ago in a town north of Culiacan, a passing
driver filmed a military helicopter hovering over four gunmen in helmets
and tactical vests just yards from a highway. The gunmen had crashed
their truck into a telephone pole, but were shooting back at the
chopper.
However, the online rumor mill is sometimes unreliable.
The Sinaloa Red Cross was forced to issue a statement late Thursday
denying reports that two paramedics had been kidnapped along with their
ambulance in an outlying town where fighting has been especially fierce.
But even the Red Cross was spooked. It was careful to say that “it is
important to stress that the Mexican Red Cross is not taking any side in
the conflict.”
State prosecutors were largely left hamstrung after the chief state
prosecutor resigned after allegedly submitting false information about
the July 25 killing of an opponent of Gov. Rocha.
And the entire municipal force in Culiacan has been temporarily disarmed
by soldiers to check their guns, something that’s been done in the past
when the army suspects that police officers are working for drug
cartels.
President Claudia Sheinbaum limited her response to the shots fired at
the newspaper to a few words. “First, obviously, to condemn these acts,
and investigations are being carried out," Sheinbaum said.
The state is governed by her Morena party, and she has strongly backed
Rocha.
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Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.
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