Aug. 9 (UPI) — Mexico’s journalists were on alert Monday after a death threat against a prominent television news anchor was issued by masked gunmen claiming to represent the drug lord known as “El Mencho.”
The threat elicited an outpouring of support from fellow reporters and promises of protection for journalists covering the activities by Mexico’s notorious and powerful drug gangs.
In a video posted on Monday, a masked spokesman surrounded by heavily armed men read a statement purporting to be from Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, leader of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG.
In it, he blasts “unfair” media coverage of the Jalisco cartel’s battles with rivals, including armed anti-drug vigilantes, in Mexico’s western Michoacán state, and specifically threatens Azucena Uresti, a television journalist and anchor for Grupo Milenio.
“Azucena Uresti, wherever you are, I will find you and I will make you eat your words even if they accuse me of femicide, because they do not know me, Rubén Oseguera Cervantes,” the reader says, adding, “I am not an extortionist.”
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration calls the CJNG “one of the fastest growing transnational criminal organizations in Mexico, and among the most prolific methamphetamine producers in the world.”
It is responsible for a significant proportion of drugs entering the United States and elevated levels of violence in Mexico with “El Mencho” as its “undisputed leader,” according to the DEA.
The threats prompted expressions of support from reporters across Mexico, who have frequently been targeted for death by the cartels.
“Absolute solidarity with [Uresti] and your team,” tweeted Carlos Loret de Mola, a columnist with the Mexico City daily El Universal. “Protection, care and respect for freedom of expression.”
A spokesman for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the government is “taking appropriate measures to protect threatened journalists and media. Democratic freedoms are guaranteed along with the right to information for citizens.”