Investigative journalist Lydia Cacho has fled Mexico on the heals of new death threats against the journalist, reported Fox News Latino on Friday, Aug. 3.
Ricardo González of Article 19's Journalists Protection Program explained that the Mexican muckraker would remain out of the country while the group develops a strategy to protect the journalist, according to the AFP news agency.
"Thank you for your solidarity. It's the mafiosos who should flee, not us," Cacho tweeted on Aug. 4, a week after announcing she received a threatening message over her home's security intercom system in the coastal tourist city of Cancún.
Cacho won several international journalism awards after publishing a book alleging Mexican authorities' complicity in a child prostitution ring. Soon after her accusations, the journalist was illegally detained in December 2005 and received her first death threats. In August 2009, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights requested the Mexican government take precautionary measures to protect the investigative reporter.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
