Press Freedom

Mexico June 20, 2012

H.E. Felipe Calderon
President
Residencia Official de los Pinos
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec
1850 Mexico, DF
Government of Mexico
Fax: (011.52.5) 515.5729

Your Excellency:

We at the Overseas Press Club of America wish to congratulate you for offering the protection of the Mexican Federal government to journalist Stephania Cardoso and her young son, who have been missing since June 9 in what appeared to be a news-related abduction. That is a welcome sign in a month when the fifth Mexican journalist this year was killed, this time with a note attached from the Zeta drug cartel. He was Manuel Baez Chino, a crime reporter for the national newspaper Milenio and a local web site called Police Reporters. After being kidnapped, his body was found on a street in Xalapa in the state of Veracruz on June 14. According to the Associated Press, the note reportedly said, “This is what happens to those who betray us and be clever, Sincerely the Zetas.”

It was with great relief that we learned from news reports on June 18 that Cardoso was alive. In a phone call, it was reported that she told Denise Maerker of Radio Formula that she had requested protection because she felt in “great danger.” Shortly after that disclosure, it was reported in a Twitter message from your office that you said you knew Cardoso was alive and that she would be protected by the Federal Prosecutors Office.

As you may know, Cardoso’s newspaper, Zocalo del Saltillo, in the northern state of Coahuila, had curtailed aggressive drug crime reporting precisely because of the overwhelming danger to Mexican journalists. Yet it appears Cardoso chose to flee anyway, possibly because the danger of murder with impunity — commonly known as “kill at will” — remains high no matter what is reported.

Offering Federal protection for Cardoso and her family is an important step toward increasing safety for reporters and editors on the front lines. We urge you to direct full Federal powers toward cleaning up recent murders, showing through prosecutions that killers are no longer immune when trying to silence the press.

Respectfully,
Robert Dowling
Larry Martz
Freedom of the Press Committee

cc:

Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza
Attorney General
Avenida Paseo de la Reforma, Nos. 211-213
Mexico, DF, C.P. 06500
Government of Mexico
Fax: (202) 728.1698

Maria Otero
Under Secretary of State for Democracy
and Global Affairs
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520

Olga María del Carmen Sánchez
Ministra
Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación
PinoSúarez, No. 2
Colonia Centro, México, DF
Government of México
Fax: (011.525.55) 522.0152

Genaro David GóngoraPimentel
MinistroPresidente
Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación
PinoSúarez, No. 2
Colonia Centro, México, DF
Government of México
Fax: (011.525.55) 522.0152

H.E. Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana
Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S.A.
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Fax (202) 728.1698

Ambassador Claude Heller
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of Mexico
to the United Nations
2 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 688.8862

H.E. Anthony Wayne
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Embassy of the United States of America
P.O. Box 9000
Brownsville, TX 78520
Fax: (011.52.55) 50.80.20.05

Rosario Robles
Presidenta
Partido de la RevoluciónDemocrática
Huatusco # 37, 5o.piso
Col. Roma Sur, México, DF
Mexico
Fax: (011.52.55) 5207.1200

Patricia Mercado Sanchez
Editor
El Economista
Mexico, DF
Mexico
pmercado@economista.com.mx

Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz
El Universal of Mexico City
Bucareli N° 8, Col. CentroDelegación
Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06040
México

Ramón DaríoCantúDeándar
El Maòana
Mexico
Fax: (011.52.5) 714.8797

Alfredo Corchado
The Dallas Morning News
acorchado@dallasnews.com

Jorge Luis Sierra
jlsierrag@yahoo.com