Mexican Journalist's Life Is Threatened By The Cartel, Shown On Live TV

Mexican authorities must immediately investigate death threats directed at reporter Alberto Amaro Jordán, his family, and his bodyguards and take steps to guarantee his safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

Unknown individuals driving a red truck passed by the residence of Amaro, founder and editor of Tlaxcala state-based news website La Prensa de Tlaxcala, and yelled death threats at the reporter’s bodyguards stationed at the front gate at approximately 7 p.m. on Monday, May 20 in the city of Apizaco, in the central Mexican state of Tlaxcala, Amaro told CPJ.

“They told the bodyguards that they were going to ‘kill us all,’ after which they drove away,” Amaro told CPJ, adding that they drove by again shortly after and repeated the threats. “The bodyguards told me that they may have been intoxicated.”

Amaro is currently enrolled in a protection program sanctioned by the federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists after receiving numerous threats over the past years.

“It is deeply concerning that reporter Alberto Amaro Jordán continues to receive brazen death threats, even as he is under the protection of the Mexican government. These threats are a clear sign of the violence that continues to plague the Mexican press,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative. “CPJ calls on Mexican authorities to investigate the threats Amaro and his family face and to strengthen the safety measures before this case becomes yet another footnote in Mexico’s abysmal track record of keeping journalists safe.”