By Ingrid Bachmann
Alleged members of the organized crime group Los Zetas directly threatened the editors of La Jornada Zacatecas, Imagen, and El Diario NTR– all based in the state of Zacatecas– and demanded they put a letter denouncing the Mexican military on the front page of their newspapers, La Jornada reports.
Drug traffickers have increased their pressure on the Mexican press and, according to El Universal, over the last several months the military has intensified its operations in Zacatecas, where they have made several significant arrests and killings of alleged gang members.
Governor Amalia García said she would respect the newspapers’ decisions to publish the letter or not, El Sol de Zacatecas adds. According to Zacatecas en Línea, García also offered police protection to affected editors and reporters.
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.
