(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has condemned harassment of the local press in Mexico after publications were censored and journalists spied on in the second half of January 2007 in Sonora state in the north-west, Guanajuato, in central Mexico, and Puebla in the south.
RSF noted that the abuse of power was the work of local authorities already operating hand-in-glove with the justice system over press cases.
"Aides to Sonora state governor, Eduardo Bours, were recently suspected of involvement in the disappearance of a journalist in 2005 [see IFEX alert of 24 January 2007]. The governor of Puebla State, Mario Marín, is no [bystander in] the case of the unfair arrest of freelance journalist Lydia Cacho, also in 2005 [see alerts of 3 January 2007, 8 March and 16 February 2006 and 22 and 21 December 2005]. These new cases confirm the complete contempt which some local leaders have for the press," said RSF.
"In the absence of any reaction from the federal government, which promised to guarantee freedom of expression, these violations provide further support for impunity," it added.
On 18 January 2007, police in Hermosillo, Sonora State, halted a distribution truck for the twice-monthly magazine "Contralínea", and seized 2,500 copies from inside the vehicle. Police officers, claiming the truck was stolen, pretended to seize two packets of cocaine in order to arrest distribution manager Mauricio Capdevielle and the driver. The two men were released on 21 January.
The magazine's editor, Alvaro Cepeda Neri, told RSF that during the arrest the police officers made threats against Capdevielle, the magazine's publisher, Miguel Badillo, and himself, adding that Bours was personally responsible for this confrontation. The magazine had carried an article about the plundering of land belonging to Yaqui Indians in which the governor was implicated. The case has been referred to the National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, CNDH) and the special federal prosecutor's office for journalists.
Pedro Moreno, a journalist with the daily "Correo" in Celaya, Guanajuato state, told RSF that René Mondragón Barragan, personal secretary to the mayor, Gerardo Hernández Gutiérrez, was collecting data on local reporters. Sources in the National Action Party (Partido de Acción Nacional, PAN) of which President Felipe Calderón and the mayor of Celaya are members, told the journalist that the files contained information about their private lives (family, homes, sexual orientation) and their likely sources of information. A journalist was reportedly paid 80,000 pesos (approx. 5,500 euros) to provide the information. Freelance photographer Luis García confirmed that he had seen his own file, which referred to his personal relationship with a colleague.
On 15 January, a journalist with the daily "AM de Celaya" was expelled from a press conference on the orders of the mayor, who accused him of being "negative" towards the municipality. Two days later, journalists from the daily "Correo" and Radio Corporativo Celaya were prevented from entering public buildings by the head of the municipal police, Prisciliano Mandujano. All these cases were referred to the human rights prosecutor on 17 January.
On the same day, Martha Laris, head of the Science and Communications Department of the Americas University in Cholula, Puebla state, had the editorial team of the university weekly "La Catarina" thrown out of its offices and its equipment and files confiscated. In October 2006, the weekly had criticised collusion between the university rector and the state governor, Mario Marín, of whom they published cartoons.
