This year, three journalists were killed in Mexico for reasons directly related to their work, and four others were killed, though the motive wasn’t clear, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Journalist deaths in Mexico over the past five years are a marked increase from a decade ago, as the interactive above shows. The mutilated bodies of two bloggers were hung from a passenger overpass in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo last month, with a sign attached saying, “This will happen to all Internet busy bodies.”Īlso in September, police found the severed head of a woman known as “NenaDLaredo” or “Girl from Laredo” next to her computer, with a message linking her death to her narco-blogging.īoth incidents show that drug cartels - long known for trying to intimidate the mainstream media - are turning their sights on social media users as the next target of their threats.
A note left beside the body of the “Girl from Laredo” is signed “Z”, which usually means the Zetas criminal cartel.
