By mauradryan
Mexican journalist Emilio Gutierrez Soto, who crossed the U.S. border more than two years ago, fleeing from death threats, has been told he must wait another 15 months for his asylum case to be heard, the Associated Press reported Friday, Feb. 4.
The hearing, scheduled for Friday, was delayed after Carlos Spector, Gutierrez’s attorney, was subpoenaed to appear as a witness in an unrelated federal case, the Associated Press explained. The hearing has been rescheduled for May 9, 2012. A statement from Spector’s office, the Associated Press reported, suggested the new date is connected with U.S. hopes that the drug violence in Mexico will subside by 2012.
“It’s a game that both countries are playing," Gutierrez told the Texas Tribune. "I didn’t come here just to leave Mexico and get immigration papers, the way some people are saying. I came because I feared for my life.”
Gutierrez had his first hearing on Jan. 21 in El Paso, Texas. During an interview with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, Gutierrez said the prosecutor and the judge rejected much of the evidence that was presented in his defense during the hearing.
Gutierrez was a reporter for El Diario de Noroeste for eight years in Ascensión, Chihuahua. He claimed to have been threatened after writing articles that described brutal tactics the Mexican government and army used to crack down on drug violence. In order to be granted asylum, Gutierrez must prove that his life was threatened because he expressed his political opinion. He describes the threats to PBS in this video.
Among those testifying on Gutierrez’s behalf are Mike O’Connor, Mexico representative for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists; Ricardo Sandoval Palos, with the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity; and Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, who represents Mexico’s independent National Human Rights Commission.
Gutierrez, who left Mexico with his 15-year-old son in June 2008, will be able to live and work the United States until his case is completed. He currently lives in Dona Ana County, New Mexico.
