A Mexican journalist who has been missing for a week ago called a radio program on Friday, June 15, to say that she and her two-year-old son were alive and seeking protection from federal authorities, reported Notimex.
Stephania Rodríguez Cardoso, the police reporter who was last seen at a party in the wee hours of Friday, June 8, called the program Atando Cabos on the Radio Fórmula network. "My son and I are fine, but for safety reasons I can't call my family, for our well-being I can't say where I am, or how we got here," she said, as reported the radio station.
Later, the reporter published on Twitter: "Thanks to God we are fine, but now we need help and my life and life of my baby are at risk."
Using her Twitter account, Rodríguez Cardoso typically reported on shootings, accidents, and military operations in the Mexican city of Saltillo, according to the magazine Proceso.
The reporter did not want to give more details about the motives behind her disappearance, but all signs indicate that it was about a kidnapping, according to Radio Fórmula.
Mexican President Felipe Calderón guaranteed protection for the journalist through the federal prosecutor's office.
So far, 15 journalists have disappeared in Mexico, the most dangerous country to practice journalism in the Americas, according to Reporters Without Borders. Another 1,800 persons have been reported disappeared in the last three years in the state of Coahuila, where Rodríguez Cardoso lives.
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.
