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Green_T


Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,042
Loc: UK
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Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars
#13249688 - 09/26/10 02:55 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars Sunday 26 September 2010 - The Guardian (UK)
 Soldiers carry the coffin of one of 72 migrants killed by drug traffickers in Tamaulipas, Mexico, last month. Photograph: Reuters
A small army of bloggers and tweeters is filling the gaps left by traditional media in Mexico that are increasingly limiting their coverage of the country's drug wars because of pressure from the cartels.
"Shots fired by the river, unknown number of dead," read one recent tweet on a busy feed from the northern border city of Reynosa, #Reynosafollow. "Organized crime blockade on San Fernando road lifted," said another. "Just saw police officers telling a group of narcos about the positions of navy checkpoints," ran a third.
Nothing of this kind appeared in the city's papers which, along with most media outlets in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, have become better known for what they do not publish than for what they do.
Tamaulipas is one of the most intense battlegrounds of the drug wars being fought in Mexico between the federal forces and at least seven cartels.
Gun fights lasting hours, grenade attacks in shopping streets, military swoops on suspected kingpins – all ignored. Six local journalists in one city disappeared in two days, and there was hardly a word from their terrified colleagues.
One editor on a regional paper – who does not want to be named for security reasons – has meticulously followed directives from the dominant local traffickers ever since a story she published about a shoot-out, based on an official report, earned her a death threat a couple of months ago.
She does not even dare complain too openly about this to colleagues, in case they are in the pay of the gang. But every now and then she cannot resist tweeting. "Sometimes the emotion of a story gets to me and I put it on Twitter," she says. "Especially when I know it won't get out otherwise."
Earlier this month, she revealed the kidnapping of a former local mayor who is also a cousin of Mexico's biggest media magnate.
This reporting is not just the preserve of citizen journalists and frustrated reporters, all too aware that at least 30 Mexican journalists have been killed or disappeared since the drug wars began in December 2006. There are also plenty of rumourmongers, official sources, and cartel propagandists.
El Blog del Narco was set up in March and posts the information, photographs and videos it receives unedited and without comment.
The result is a catalogue of horror absent even from the national press, which still covers the violence from the relative safety of its headquarters in the capital.
Offerings last week included a video of the interrogation and execution of four alleged hit men, photographs of a car found in a Pacific coast resort with two heads on the roof – the headless bodies were on the back seat – and the army's discovery of a torture house about an hour's drive from Mexico City. Much of the material comes from the cartels themselves, but in an email interview with the Guardian, the anonymous administrator insisted he has no direct relationship with them.
"We just publish the information," he wrote, adding that the blog sometimes receives 4m visits a week.
"Blog del Narco grew because the media and the government are trying to pretend that nothing is happening in Mexico."
This is not quite true. At least not yet. Although regional media in all the hot spots are resorting to some degree of self-censorship, the extent varies from front to front.
Journalists in the infamously violent border city of Ciudad Juárez have long ago reduced their investigations, but they still cover the daily murders and massacres in detail.
Some say the unusually high number of outlets in Juárez are just too hard to control, others point out that the city's warriors are often happy to publicise their crimes. But many wonder whether the rules of the game are now changing even in Juárez.
The city's biggest paper, the Diario de Juárez, responded to the recent murder of one of its photographers with a front page editorial appealing to organised crime for advice on how to avoid more deaths among its staff.
"We need you to explain to us what you want us to publish and what not," it said.
If the answer turns out to be silence, the experience elsewhere in Mexico suggests there will be plenty of twitter feeds and blogs ready to occupy the information vacuum they leave behind.
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"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
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smaerd


Registered: 03/11/08
Posts: 2,058
Last seen: 12 years, 10 months
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Re: Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars [Re: Green_T]
#13249884 - 09/26/10 03:45 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Drugs rule a whole country, this is so fucking insane.
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist


Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,392
Last seen: 3 days, 7 hours
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Re: Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars [Re: Green_T]
#13249918 - 09/26/10 03:57 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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I have been in Mexico for 5 weeks now and I have not seen anything even remotely violent. Does not seem like there are many drugs here, or people keep it well hidden. I have seen a couple people smoke weed but they were in their homes.
It rains every day here and there are mushrooms everywhere.
I am in Mexico City now. Driving is crazy, people do not always stop at red lights, but I have not seen any crime or car accidents.
I have made 3 threads about Mexico so far:
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/13232696
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/13233588
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/13240150
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MisterMuscaria



Registered: 05/13/08
Posts: 27,646
Loc:
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Re: Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars [Re: Alan Rockefeller]
#13249975 - 09/26/10 04:12 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Ive been to Mexico City before. Not really too much crime, very peaceful place. A little dirty and very crowded but I felt safe the whole time I was there. No problem going out at night.
It's the northern border towns where the crime is really bad though, as you go south it isnt that terrible at all. From what I gather Juarez and Tijuana are the places you really dont wanna be.
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curenado
73rd Man



Registered: 04/01/03
Posts: 2,663
Loc: North Central Arkansas
Last seen: 1 hour, 55 minutes
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Re: Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars [Re: Alan Rockefeller]
#13249993 - 09/26/10 04:15 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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<<It rains every day here and there are mushrooms everywhere.
I am in Mexico City now. Driving is crazy, people do not always stop at red lights, but I have not seen any crime or car accidents.
I have made 3 threads about Mexico so far:>>
 Looks like you are having a good trip!
I wonder if we shall see a fresh strain of Zapo prints soon?
-------------------- Yours in the Natural State Land of Enchantment! "The woods are lovely, dark and deep; but I have patches to keep, and jars to sterilize before I sleep...." "When psychotomimetics become cultural, so does cultural psychosis"
Edited by curenado (09/26/10 04:16 PM)
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SuperD
Cacti junky


Registered: 10/05/03
Posts: 6,648
Loc: The bridgesii bridge
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Re: Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars [Re: curenado]
#13250037 - 09/26/10 04:25 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Some of those videos on El Blog Del Narco are hard to watch, and I'm usually insensitive to content like that. They really love to disembowel and behead their enemies down there. Sick.
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   D Manoa said: I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin. Looking for Rauhocereus riosaniensis seeds or live specimen(s), me if you have any for trade
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2859558484
Growery is Better



Registered: 01/10/06
Posts: 8,752
Last seen: 3 years, 8 months
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Re: Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars [Re: SuperD]
#13250040 - 09/26/10 04:26 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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yeah they love to cut eachothers heads off. I saw one set of pics on blogo where a few guys were COMPLETELY dismembered. as in cut through at every joint.
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auronlives69
psychedelic monk



Registered: 04/19/09
Posts: 655
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Re: Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars [Re: Green_T]
#13250266 - 09/26/10 05:30 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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mexico city and deeper parts of mexico are really chill but its far from comparable to juarez since its a border city drug smuggling is essential for profit so you end up having all these gangs and cartel in the area competing over territory driveby shooting rivals or just random people slanging, i bought a 20 of coke from a 4 year old girl at j town no joke, shit is crazy down there right now the fucking mexian military patrols the streets fully armed to the teeth like if there in some kind of seige, scary place to be at this time of year
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shroominsheep
Stranger

Registered: 09/08/09
Posts: 61
Last seen: 11 years, 6 months
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Re: Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars [Re: auronlives69]
#13256154 - 09/27/10 08:52 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
auronlives69 said: scary place to be at this time of year
No Joke I live in southwestern NM very close to the El Paso, TX Border to Juarez and it's not a place most want to be lately.. Lots of gang violence and drug smuggling unfortunately. but that's what you get when you have a country with mass produced weapons next (U.S) to a country with lots of cheap drugs(MEX). The drug trade is what keeps the cartel alive and running strong; WE NEED TO JUST LEGALIZE MARIJUANA to stop the bullshit, make some money and get some funding into stopping the harder drug trade between the countries. but that's just my opinion
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playapez
Strangest

Registered: 06/13/09
Posts: 424
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Re: Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars [Re: shroominsheep]
#13256395 - 09/27/10 09:34 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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There is undeniable terrorism occurring right at the US border. Something like 28,000 people have been killed in the last 4 years in this drug war. Clearly when the journalists are saying, "Hey, just tell me what to say so I don't get kidnapped and beaten to death," the government has lost control.
It's a wonder the US govt isn't stepping up to "handle" the situation.
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