The Venezuelan Supreme Court approved the request to seek extradition of Walid Makled, alleged Venezuelan drug dealer arrested in Colombia last week, reported the Associated Press. Makled is considered the mastermind behind the 2009 killing of journalist Orel Sambrano, according to El Universal.
Mexican authorities are investigating grenade attacks at the offices of media giant Televisa in the cities of Matamoros and Monterrey. The first incident happened in Matamoros the night of Saturday, Aug. 14, and no one was injured. In the case of Monterrey, the attack occurred at dawn on Sunday, slightly injuring two employees and damaging a car and nearby buildings, reported Agencia Reforma and La Crónica de Hoy.
Milenio is reporting that the Mexican Public Safety Secretary announced the capture in Durango of five alleged members of the Sinaloa cartel suspected of being linked to the kidnapping of two television videographers and a reporter at the end of last July.
Ten days after being kidnapped from his home in Zacatecas, Ulises González García was freed and then immediately hospitalized, reported Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The editor of the weekly newspaper La Opinión showed signs of having been tortured.
Faced with systematic attacks against journalists and the media in parts of Mexico, the United Nations (U.N.) and the Organization of American States (OAS) have proposed a new risk category for reporters who work in conflict zones that aren't within the definition of war outlined by international treaties, reported La Jornada.
The following account is a testimony from Marcela Turati, of the Red de Periodistas de a Pie (On-the-ground Journalists Network), one of the organizers of the unprecedented demonstrations in Mexico protesting the violence against journalists.
The Prosecutor’s Office in Mato Grosso state has charged politicians and businessmen from the city of Juína with kidnapping, false imprisonment, and illegal restraint, after allegedly sequestering several reporters and activists who were trying to film a documentary on deforestation and the Enawene Nawe indigenous peoples, Folha de S. Paulo and Greenpeace report. The attackers feared they would help the tribe in land disputes with local farmers.
As Mexican journalists are finalizing the details of their protest this Saturday against violence and threats against the country’s media workers, President Felipe Calderón met with media owners and editors to pledge federal government support, El Universal and La Jornada report.
Federal police announced the arrest of suspected gang members who allegedly kidnapped three TV journalists in northern Mexico last week, The Associated Press reports.
Drug-related violence in Mexico has not only left more than 28,000 dead since 2006, it has also plunged the local press into a crisis, one that has laid bare the chronic weaknesses of Mexican journalism.
Javier Canales and Alejandro Hernández, two of the four journalists kidnapped by drug gangs in Durango state, were freed in a rescue operation Saturday, AFP reports. Cameraman Héctor Gordoa was freed Thursday and La Cronica de Hoy reports that the journalist Óscar Solís had been released last Tuesday.
Héctor Gordoa, one of four journalists who were kidnapped this week in Durango state, was dropped off at Televisa’s Torreón offices, where he worked, AFP and La Jornada report.