Investigative Journalism on the Cover Illustration by Ricardo Trotti Focus on Mexico the Latin American Press Has Long Suffered from Attacks on Press Freedom

Home , Alfredo Corchado, Cecilia Alvear, Juan Manuel Santos

Harvard University non-profit org David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies u.s. postage 1730 Cambridge St. paid boston, ma Cambridge, MA 02138 permit no. 1636

contributors

36 Kara Andrade is an Ashoka fellow working in Central America. 25 Gustavo Gorriti is the founder and director of IDL-Reporteros, a

28 Mónica Almeida is Quito editor of Guayaquil-headquartered El digital, nonprofit investigative publication in Peru.23 Carlos Lauría is

Universo. 10 Rosental Alves is the director and founder of the Knight the Americas senior program coordinator of the Committee to Protect

Center for Journalism in the Americas. 8 Jaime Abello Banfi is the Journalists. 39 Juanita León is the owner, founder and director of lasil- executive director of Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano. lavacia.com. 62 Theodore Macdonald is a Fellow at the University Com-

32 Benjamin Fernández Bogado is founder and director of Radio Libre mittee on Human Rights Studies, and a Lecturer at Harvard University. and Fundacion Libre. 21 Catalina Botero Marino is Special Rapporteur 2 Gonzalo Marroquín is president of the InterAmerican Press Associa- for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commision on Human tion. 15 Graciela Mochkofsky is the co-founder and editor of digital

Rights. 21 Michael J. Camilleri, Harvard J.D. ’04, is a Human Rights magazine el puercoespin. 34 Raúl Peñaranda is editor-in-chief of Pá-

Specialist with the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of gina Siete in Bolivia. 53 Judith Torrea is an independent journalist and

Expression. 46 Alfredo Corchado, Mexico City bureau chief for the Dal- blogger from Spain. 18 Ricardo Trotti is Press Freedom and Press Insti- las Morning News, is a 2010-11 Visiting Fellow at DRCLAS. tute director of the Inter American Press Association. 56 Marcela Turati

41 Carlos Dada is the founder and director of El Faro. 60 Barbara Fash is a staff reporter for Proceso Magazine. 61 Kirsten Weld is the Florence is the Director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program. Levy Kay Fellow in Latin American History at Brandeis University.

12 Josh Friedman is the Director of the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for

Journalism in the Americas. 51 Javier Garza Ramos is editor-in-chief of FEATURED ARTWORK BY:

El Siglo de Torreón. 6 Bob Giles is curator of the Nieman Foundation for Ricardo Trotti, Daniela Rea, Jess Fernandez, Humberto Delgado,

Journalism. 43 Mónica González is the director of CIPER. Marcela Turati, Judith Torrea and Donna DeCesare harvard review of Latin america journalism of the americas

spring | summer 2011 editor’s letter

TheZocalo Best Hed Job 26 in pt the World

Zocalo deck 14 point one line By I always assumed Róbinson Rojas was Dominican. For decades now, I’ve been carrying around his words or posting them on my walls. I was given these inspiring words by my dear friend, the photojournalist Ramón DeJesús Lora, then a Dominican exile, when I entered Columbia School of Journalism in 1969. “A la pequeña legión de periodistas latinoamericanos y norteamericanos, anónimos en su mayoría, que cada día son humillados, son ofendidos y hasta torturados moralmente, porque están empeñados en una tarea peligrosa: descubrir la verdad.” That translates as, “To the small legion of Latin American and North American journalists, anonymous for the most part, who every day are humiliated, insulted and even morally tortured because they are bent on carrying out a dangerous task: to discover the truth.” Volume X No. 2 I went to journalism school before Watergate, which for many was a watershed in jour- David Rockefeller Center nalistic truth seeking. But my neighbors in a Dominican neighborhood of New York, including for Latin American Studies Ramón, had already taught me the value and perils of truth seeking in journalism; they had Director experienced the Trujillo dictatorship and the U.S. invasion of Santo Domingo. Journalism was Merilee S. Grindle their lifeline. Associate Director Rojas’ words served as a model for my life as a foreign correspondent—whether in Bogotá, Kathy Eckroad Managua or even eventually Berlin. The part about danger became more and more painfully personal. My friend Richard Cross and our colleague Dial Torgerson were blown up by a land ReVista mine in northern Nicaragua; Linda Frazier, a reporter for the Tico Times in Costa Rica, who had Editor in-Chief planted roses in my San José garden, was killed by a bomb intended for contra leader Eden June Carolyn Erlick Pastora; other reporters met their fate in Central American crossfire. Copy Editor Yes, there were risks, as the courageous journalists in Mexico are experiencing now. Jour- Anita Safran nalism can be scary, but the truth is, it’s also fun and exciting. We journalists like to tell stories; Publications Intern we like to figure out sources, and, yes, we like to ferret out the truth. Jai C. Beeman That’s why practicing journalism in Latin America is both enriching and challenging. It’s Design a continent of story tellers. It’s a continent where truth is often hidden, but where reporters, 2communiqué through digging, can bring down governments or put into motion international indignation www.2communique.com about human rights abuses. It was, after all, the death of a courageous editor, Pedro Joaquín Printer Chamorro, that brought down the decades-long Somoza dictatorship in Managua. P & R Publications Gabriel García Márquez called journalism the best job in the world. I couldn’t agree more. Contact Us “Journalism,” he said in a 1996 speech to the Inter American Press Association, “is an unap- 1730 Cambridge Street peasable passion that can be assimilated and humanized only through stark confrontation with Cambridge, MA 02138 reality.” Telephone: 617-495-5428 In addition to my job as editor-in-chief of ReVista, I teach journalism at Harvard Extension Facsimile: 617-496-2802 School. Sometimes my students confront me and ask me if journalism is dead, and why am I Subscriptions and Reader Forum not teaching them tweeting and social media and blogs. And I insist that those are the new [email protected] tools of journalism, and very valuable tools, but to practice journalism, one must understand Website how to report and write and search for the truth. www.drclas.harvard.edu/publications/ revistaonline Many of the journalists in this issue are involved with new ways of story telling; all of them are committed to truth seeking. With still relatively low but growing Internet penetration, Latin Facebook ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America American journalism has the advantage of time to prepare in a creative way for a digital future.

As I began to write this editor’s letter, I realized that after a recent move, I had Róbinson This issue of ReVista is made possible Rojas’ words tucked inside some unpacked box. I resort to Google, thinking that I will never through the generous support of Banco be able to find the quote. It pops up immediately. And after 42 years, I discover that Róbinson Santander Rojas was not Dominican, but Chilean. Copyright © 2011 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. ISSN 1541–1443

ReVista is printed on recycled stock.

2 ReVista spring | summer 2011 harvard review of Latin america

spring | summer 2011 Volume X No. 2

Published by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Harvard University journalism of the americas in every issue

First Take MAKING A DIFFERENCE 60 Attacking the Press By Gonzalo Marroquín 2 Inheritors of History With Barbara Fash reflections BOOK TALK Latin American Nieman Fellows By Bob Giles 6 Guatemala: An Urban Focus 61 New Journalists for a New World By Jaime Abello Banfi 8 A Review By Kirsten Weld Journalism Training By Rosental Alves 10 Indigenous Lands: Loss and Dignity 62 Covering the Region By Josh Friedman 12 A Review By Theodore Macdonald What’s New in Latin American Journalism By Graciela Mochkofsky 15 reader forum 64 under attack Indirect Censorship By Ricardo Trotti 18 21 Freedom of Expression in Latin America online By Catalina Botero Marino and Michael J. Camilleri Look for more content online at Silencing the Media By Carlos Lauría 23 drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline. Beyond Intimidation and Exile By Gustavo Gorriti 25 The Law as Censor By Mónica Almeida 28 new voices Journalism in Paraguay By Benjamin Fernández Bogado 32 Why I Created a New Newspaper in Bolivia By Raúl Peñaranda U. 34 Citizen Media By Kara Andrade 36 La Silla Vacía By Juanita León 39 El Faro By Carlos Dada 41 By Mónica González 43 Investigative Journalism On the cover Illustration by Ricardo Trotti focus on mexico The Latin American press has long suffered from attacks on press freedom. Today, journalists and their media face pres- Midnight in Mexico By Alfredo Corchado Photos By Daniela Rea 46 sures from governments, power elites and extralegal groups. By Javier Garza Ramos 51 Ricardo Trotti, director of Press Freedom for the Inter Ameri- Under Fire in Mexico can Press Association and an established artist, created this Juarez in the Shadows By Judith Torrea 53 image to illustrate some of those threats. His artwork can be found throughout this issue (see pages 2, 7, 15, 17, 19, 20, 23, 25, From the Ashes of Violence By Marcela Turati 56 29, 30, and inside back cover).

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 1 first take

Attacking the Press

By Gonzalo Marroquín

the parking garage in a Ciudad Juárez shopping center was splashed with blood on the afternoon of September 16, 2010. Photographers Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco, 21, and Carlos Manuel Sánchez Colunga, 18, had been on a lunch break at the mall when they were gunned down. That morning, they had participated in a photography course at El Diario, where both of the young men were interns. Orozco died and Sánchez Colunga was seriously injured. The young photographers are not isolated cases of attacks on journalists. In just 13 days last year, from June 28 to July 10, four journalists in the Mexican states of Nuevo León, Michoacán and Guerrero died violent deaths. Such cases are prevalent enough to appear even in fictional accounts. In a recent novel, Tijuana: cri- men y olvido (Tusquets, 2010), the protagonists, a young woman reporter from Tijuana and a journalist from San Diego, both disappear. The situation in Mexico is perhaps the most serious on the continent for both common citizens and journalists. That is why this issue of ReVista, which examines some of the issues affecting the press in Latin America, has devoted an entire section to the Mexican situation. In 2010, Latin America became the most dangerous region in the world for journalists. Mexico ended the the year mourning the murders of 11 journalists; another nine were killed in Honduras, two in Brazil and one in Co- lombia. In the face of this overwhelming violence, the Inter American Press Asso- ciation (IAPA) has pointed out how this often translates into self-censorship, and of its most important challenges. One of the Union of South American Nations thus into a violation of another funda- our priorities is to exhort governments (UNASUR), and the Bolivarian Alliance mental principle: the right of citizens to and intergovernmental bodies to propose for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), be informed. It is therefore imperative to and establish more active and effective the Latin American Association for In- put an end to the violence and impunity methods to counteract violence and im- tegration (ALADI), the Inter-American for crimes against journalists. punity. Thus we have publicly asked the Development Bank (IDB) and the An- For IAPA, ending this situation is one Organization of American States (OAS), dean Development Corporation (CAF),

2 ReVista spring | summer 2011 artwork by ricardo trotti among others, to formulate actions to do cil of Peruvian Press, had been urging for ico gathered in several forums in Her- away with this scourge of violence, as well several years. mosillo and Mexico City in recent years as plans to reject any measures that affect We are also pleased that in 2010 five have attested. press freedom and the full exercise of de- criminals were condemned for murders In addition, in a joint mission with the mocracy. committed in Brazil and Venezuela, and Committee for the Protection of Jour- Aggressions and attacks against jour- another 11 have been imprisoned or ar- nalists (CPJ), we visited President Felipe nalists and the media have occurred in rested and awaiting trial in Colombia, El Calderón, who committed himself to im- all periods in Latin America. Bombs have Salvador, Honduras and Mexico. plement a centralized system of protec- destroyed entire newspaper buildings be- Since 1995, IAPA, with funding from tion for Mexican journalists and to pro- cause of press denunciations against po- the John S. and James L. Knight Founda- mote legislation making crimes against litical power, the military and drug traf- tion, has prioritized the search for justice freedom of expression to be federal ficking when Pablo Escobar was the drug for murdered journalists and punishment crimes. In July 2010, a Special Prosecu- lord in Colombia. These days, however, for the perpetrators. As a result, since tor’s Office was established to investigate attacks against journalists are aggravated 1995 until August 2010, 126 murderers of crimes against freedom of expression. by a climate of confrontation and po- journalists have been condemned, a sta- Unlike a similar office operating since larization generated by populist govern- tistic that contrasts with the five murder- 2006, the new office enjoys investigative ments such as those of Hugo Chávez, Ra- ers receiving sentences before 1995. This autonomy and the authority to try cases. fael Correa, Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega drop in the impunity rate was highlighted Despite the grim news from Mexico, and Cristina de Kirchner. In Cuba, where the government has maintained fierce control for the last 52 years over press freedom, the right to free Compiling statistics on fatalities—each representing expression of ideas and access of citizens a family yearning for justice—is a commitment that to information without state censorship, we rejoiced about the release last year of humanizes our task of safeguarding press freedom. 18 journalists from prison. These journalists had been condemned to severe and unjust prison sentences for exercising in an independent journalistic study so- these are positive steps. their right to freedom of the press. Yet the licited by the Knight Foundation entitled Another of the “good signs” is in Co- price of freedom for these journalists was “La muerte de la noticia: Muchas cróni- lombia. The legal reform that increased mandatory exile, an act that constitutes cas quedan sin publicar debido a los ase- the statute of limitation for crimes against a grave human rights violation. Another sinatos de periodistas latinoamericanos,” journalists to 30 years paid heed to rec- seven independent Cuban journalists are www.kflinks.com/sip (Killing the News: ommendations that we made in a legal still in jail. Stories Go Untold as Latin American study entitled “Injusticia Premiada: Un Journalists Die, www.kflinks.com/iapa). análisis de la impunidad de los crímenes good signs Our register of journalists in the last contra periodistas en Colombia” (“Injus- We are encouraged that several govern- 15 years shows that the 230 killed include tice Rewarded: An Analysis of Impunity ments in the region are committed to 19 who disappeared, some of whom are for Crimes Committed Against Journal- ending violence and impunity and are presumed dead. For IAPA, the mere com- ists in Colombia”), co-sponsored by IAPA taking steps to do something about it. piling of these statistics about fatalities, and the Association of Colombian News- For example, in November 2010 the Pe- each of which represents a family yearn- papers (ANDIARIOS), the results of ruvian government created a special legal ing for justice, is an urgent commitment which we presented in Bogotá in 2008 jurisdiction to try serious crimes against that humanizes our task of safeguarding to members of the legislative and judicial journalists (murders, injuries, kidnap- freedoms of the press and expression, branches, who committed themselves to ping and extortion). This is a measure themes that we have been demanding for making the suggested reforms. that IAPA, in conjunction with the Coun- more than a decade, as editors from Mex- Another surprising decision in Colom-

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 3 Journalism of the Americas

bia was that the Attorney General’s Of- and publication of of materials related to thorities. We have conducted education fice declared the 1986 murder of newspa- her work, including a book of her newspa- campaigns about impunity through ad- per editor Guillermo Cano to be a crime per columns and a documentary. vertising and posters published in news- against humanity. The Cano case was one On January 30, 2002, Orlando Sierra papers and websites. of the first emblematic cases investigated Hernández, deputy editor of La Patria To expand our focus on impunity, we by IAPA. The recent decision means that of Manizales in the Colombian depart- have worked with the Supreme Courts the crime will stay on the books since it is ment (state) of Caldas, was murdered. in Latin America (for example, in the presumed that it was part of a systematic The murder took place as he arrived at Dominican Republic in 2007) and with plan by the Medellin Cartel, headed by drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. The Co- lombian Attorney General’s Office also committed itself to reopening 27 other IAPA must strengthen its programs through education murder cases throughout the country, and training so that the impunity that accompanies many of which are currently languishing or just filed away. crimes against journalists becomes a “problem for all.” In spite of these good signs on the part of several governments, it would not be wise to get overly dazzled since our expe- work at two in the afternoon with his other counterpart organizations, as in rience has shown us that many promises eight-year-old daughter in the back seat Guatemala in 1997. At the end of this just stay promises. of his car. A security camera filmed the summer (2011), we will be holding a moment in which the paid assassin shot hemispheric conference in Puebla, Mex- On the Supranational Level him three times in the head. ico, on legal and judicial reforms neces- From the start of our project to publi- Since then, IAPA has been making sary to combat impunity. cize unpunished crimes against journal- independent investigations and keep- We are also involved with a song and ists, we have had the vision of joining ing a close watch on developments in composition contest that we’ve called the Interamerican justice and human this case. Several triggermen were ac- “Dona tu voz para los que no tienen rights systems by entering into negotia- cused, judged and sentenced. Finally, voz” (Donate your voice to the voice- tions with governments to resolve indi- eight years after the murder, two former less) to select a hymn against impunity vidual cases in the courts and continuing congressmen—father and son—were and to publicize this problem among to make recommendations for legal and indicted as the instigators of the crime. younger audiences and through social judicial reforms to combat the impunity The two had been criticized by Sierra in networks. that affects and will affect others. the newspaper. We are aware that some progress has Part of our work has been with the IAPA publicly congratulated the Co- been achieved, but there is still a long Inter-American Commission on Human lombian Attorney General’s Office “for way to go. As the independent study by Rights (IACHR). We have brought 27 not giving up in its effort to seek justice the Knight Foundation has indicated, it journalistic investigations to the court for these types of crime against journalis necessary to strengthen our original since 1997. Three of these cases have re- ism and the entire society,” saying that objective so that the impunity that ac- sulted in friendly settlement agreements. this display of perseverance and firmness companies crimes against journalists be- The most recent was in Brazil, in which by the authorities serves as an example comes a “problem for all.” the state of Bahía recognized its responsi- and at the same time a warning to crimi- bility in the crime and paid an indemnity nals used to operating with impunity. Gonzalo Marroquín is president of to the family of journalist Manoel Leal This is the motor that propels IAPA to the Inter American Press Association. de Oliveira, who was murdered in 1998. continue with its work. President of the newspapers Siglo 21 and In 2001, we reached a friendly settlement alDía, he was editor-in-chief of the news- agreement with Guatemala in the case of Impunity: “A Problem for All” paper Prensa Libre in Guatemala for journalist Irma Flaquer, who was forcibly Because impunity is a problem for every- fifteen years. As a journalist, he worked disappeared in 1980, her son murdered one, we began to adjust the objectives of in several Guatemalan media as a re- as she was dragged away and never seen our project. In addition to investigations, porter and photographer and eventually again. The agreement included many im- we have begun to train journalists to give as an editor. He has also has worked as portant reparation measures, including them tools that might secure their safety. a correspondent for international news indemnifying eight members of the vic- We have also sponsored judicial and leg- agencies since 1972. He was president of tim’s family, naming a street in Guatema- islative forums, as well as meetings with the Guatemalan Journalists’ Association la in her honor, scholarships in her name, affected journalists and government au- (1984-85).

4 ReVista spring | summer 2011 reflections

Murder, censorship and hostile environments challenge Latin American journalists. They also concern themselves with spotty journalism training, the lack of presence of international colleagues in the region and the need to create new journalistic models in a digital world. Here are some reflections on the profession’s challenges and realities today in Latin America.

n Latin American Nieman Fellows 6 n New Journalists for a New World 8 n Journalism Training 10 n Covering the Region 12 n What’s New in Latin American Journalism 15

photo by humberto delgado drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 5 Journalism of the Americas

Latin American Nieman Fellows

Portraying Journalism’s Realities By Bob Giles

A few days after I arrived at Harvard in in danger and who need a safe haven. A Harvard in the fall of 1980 as the first of August 2000 to begin my work as cu- few weeks later, Nacho arrived in Cam- 52 Latin American Nieman Fellows. More rator of the Nieman Foundation for bridge to begin his Nieman Fellowship. It than a few Latin Americans and Latinos Journalism, Tim Golden, an investiga- was an enriching experience for him and have now enriched the Nieman Founda- tive reporter for the New York Times for the other 24 fellows in the Nieman tion with their experiences as journalistic in Latin America, phoned me. “Could I class of 2001. bridges between the United States and find a place in the new Nieman class for The story of Ignacio Gómez is an im- Latin America. The Nieman Fellowship a Colombian journalist named Ignacio portant starting point in understanding program is the oldest and best-known Gómez?” he asked. the value of the long relationship between mid-career program for journalists in Nacho, as Gómez was known to his the Nieman Foundation and journalists the world. More than 1,300 journalists friends, had fled his country in late May from Latin America. from the U.S. and 88 other countries after a series of death threats and was My own experience in working with have come to Harvard for a year of learn- living in exile in the United States. Gold- journalists from Latin America began ing, exploration and fellowship since it en explained that in Nacho’s work as an years before I came to Harvard in my was established in 1938. The estate of investigative reporter for El Espectador work as a newspaper editor. I attended Agnes Wahl Nieman, whose husband, in Bogotá, he had linked paramilitary Inter American Press Association meet- Lucius, founded the Milwaukee Journal, leader Carlos Castaño and Colombian ings. I was involved in working with provided a gift of $1 million to Harvard military forces with the 1997 massacre of Latin American journalists in leadership in 1937 with a directive to “... promote 49 people in the village of Mapiripán. roles in the American Society of Newspa- and elevate the standards of journalism Nacho needs to find something useful per Editors, Associated Press Managing and educate persons deemed especially to do while he is here, Golden said, and Editors and the Accrediting Council on qualified for journalism.” The first inter- I can think of no better place for his tal- Education in Journalism and Mass Com- national journalists were awarded Nie- ents than as a Nieman Fellow. “Can you munications. During the 1990s, while I man Fellowships in 1951 and, in the years do anything for him?” was editor of The Detroit News, I taught since, journalists from around the world I knew that Colombia was a danger- sessions on newsroom management to have benefitted from the intellectual enous place to be a journalist, but I had editors from Central America through a richment of Harvard. no idea how dangerous until I began to program administered by Florida Inter- Since 1995, the Latin American fellow- get familiar with Nacho’s background. national University. From 1997-2000, ships have been funded by grants from the Talking with him by telephone later that as executive director of the Freedom Fo- John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. week, I sensed the depth of his passion rum’s Media Studies Center in New York, Some fellows, like Cox and Gómez, be- for uncovering the truth no matter how I traveled for seminars to Peru, Chile, Ar- came targets after they exposed govern- great the risk. gentina and Panama. But none of these ment abuses. Many have distinguished Few of Colombia’s terrible secrets had experiences brought me the intimate themselves as leaders in mainstream escaped his notice. In almost two decades knowledge of the challenges faced by news organizations across the continent. as an investigative reporter, Gómez had Latin American journalists as did getting Others are known as gifted story tellers. exposed alliances between drug lords and to know Nieman Fellows from the region Still others have invested their innovative politicians, foreign mercenaries operat- over the course of a year at Harvard. talents in startup enterprises in the online ing in Colombia, corrupt soccer teams, The first Latin American Nieman Fel- world. A few have moved into the public and the role of the Colombian military low was Robert Cox, editor of the Buenos sphere, including Juan Manuel Santos, and paramilitary forces in many notori- Aires Herald, an English-language daily ’88, the current president of Colombia. ous massacres. in Argentina, whose criticisms of the mil- Such a diverse range of talents and As I was learning about Nacho dur- itary dictatorship that ruled the country experiences has brought to the Nieman ing those first days at Walter Lippmann from 1976 to 1983 led to his brief deten- community a rare perspective that has House, I was also discovering that the Ni- tion in 1977. enabled U.S. fellows to see Latin America eman curator has the authority to award Continuing threats against his family in a less U.S.-centric way. Latin American a fellowship to journalists whose lives are forced him to leave in 1979. He arrived at fellows have helped us understand that

6 ReVista spring | summer 2011 reflections

paid contributors focusing their coverage on how power is exercised in Colombia (see p. 39). Through his teaching at the Universi- ty of Texas and his work with the Knight Foundation, Rosental Alves, a member of the Nieman class of 1988 from Brazil, has had a profound influence on journalism in Latin America. In 1991, he created an online, real-time finance news service, the first of its kind in Brazil. In 1994, Alves managed the launching of Jornal do Brasil’s online edition, making it the first Brazilian newspaper available on the Internet. At Texas, he created the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas where he trains journalists in foreign cor- respondence and press freedom in the hemisphere. Alma Guillermoprieto, ’05, has reported courageously and written brilliantly about Latin American reality for more than 20 years. She covered the insurrec- while they hold to the same high stan- In his acceptance speech, Corchado tion against Anastasio Somoza in Nica- dards as their U.S. colleagues, journal- noted, “Mexico today is among the most ragua for the Guardian and broke the ism in Latin America can be dramatically dangerous places to do journalism in the story of the massacre at El Mozote for the different from that in the United States. world, right up there with Iraq, Russia Washington Post. Her dispatches current- They told chilling stories of working in and Somalia. This is especially true for ly are published in the New Yorker, Na- dangerous places where a journalist or an those who cover the US-Mexico border, tional Geographic and New York Review editor does not always have the legal pro- once a frontier for Mexicans seeking new of Books. Her most recent book, Dancing tections that U.S. journalists enjoy. opportunities and new beginnings.” with Cuba, is a memoir about teaching In Chile, for example, laws give judg- Corchado said he accepted the award dance at the Escuela de Danza Moderna es, members of congress and other gov- “in the memory of the more than 60 Mex- in Havana in 1970 that also examines the ernment officials immunity. Alejandra ican journalists who have been murdered long history of the Cuban Revolution. Matus, a Nieman Fellow in 2010, wrote and dozens more who have disappeared The experience of Hollman Mor- a revealing book about the Chilean judi- since 2000, more than 30 in the past four ris forms a kind of bookend to my work ciary, The Black Book of Chilean Justice, years” (see p. 46). with journalists from Latin America dur- which chronicled the “corruption, nepo- In addition to defending press free- ing my 11 years as curator of the Nieman tism and abuses of power” in Chile’s jus- dom with their lives, Latin American Foundation. Hollman, an investigative tice system. The entire print run of the Nieman Fellows have been at the cut- television reporter from Colombia, was book was seized and, in 1999, Matus was ting edge of the digital revolution that denied a visa by the U.S. government as charged under the State Security Law by is changing the nature of journalism ev- he prepared to travel to Cambridge to be- which journalists could be jailed for five erywhere. Juanita León, ’07, went to New gin his year as a member of the Nieman years for defaming senior officials. She York following her Nieman year as editor class of 2011. fled the country until new legislation, in- of flypmedia.com, a multimedia general During a heartfelt conversation over troduced in 2001, allowed her to return interest magazine. The magazine did not Skype late last June, Hollman told me from exile in the United States and re- survive, but Juanita’s experience with this the denial was based on accusations by sume her career as a journalist. startup convinced her that there is a role the Colombian government linking him Alfredo Corchado, ’09, Mexico City bu- for specialized blogs. to the leftist guerrilla group FARC. His reau chief for the Dallas Morning News, She returned to Colombia to set up an probing television reports had disclosed won the 2010 Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award investigative political blog called La Silla abuses by the country’s intelligence agen- at Colby College in Maine, for his fearless Vacía (The Empty Seat). She leads a staff cy, angering the Colombian government. coverage of the drug wars in Mexico. of seven that directs the work of 60 un- Particularly, he said, his travel to southern

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 7 Journalism of the Americas

Colombia to interview senior FARC leaders for a documentary on kidnap- New Journalists pings had raised suspicions. What a paradox this seemed to be. for a New World A courageous journalist whose groundbreaking work had exposed him to Fifteen years with Gabriel García Márquez’s persecution by his own government was being turned away by the United Foundation By Jaime Abello Banfi States, with its longstanding commitment to press freedom worldwide. With extraordinary help from the Committee to Protect Journalists, I received a surprising phone call one day it would be good to have some workshops whose mission is to come to the aid in late 1993, when I was the director of where veteran journalists could converse of journalists worldwide, and Hu- Telecaribe, a public television channel in with young reporters about the carpen- man Rights Watch, a coalition quickly Barranquilla, Colombia. The caller was try of the trade. “What can be done?” I emerged that would pursue every an- none other than Gabriel García Márquez. asked him. “Think about that,” was the gle to get this unjust decision reversed. “Will you invite me to dinner?” he asked only thing he said to me with the force of When the news that Hollman had been me. “Of course, Gabito,” I answered, per- a mandate when I left him at the hotel. denied a visa first broke in an AP dis- plexed, calling him by the nickname used Two months later, I ran into him at the patch from Bogotá, stories, columns by his relatives and friends from Colom- Cartagena Film Festival opening. “Aha, and editorials followed. Thoughtful, bia’s Caribbean coast. and, what have you been thinking?” he persuasive letters went to the White We agreed on a date for dinner— asked me like a teacher who demands a House and State Department. Nie- December 28, day of the Holy Innocents homework assignment. “I met with some man Fellows wrote to express outrage in the Catholic calendar, which is com- colleagues and I have some ideas ready,” and ask what they could do. I called on parable to April Fools’ Day in the United I answered. “I expect you the day after members of the Nieman class of 1988 States—and I hung up the phone without tomorrow at five in my apartment,” he re- to contact their classmate, Juan Man- imagining that a new stage of my life was plied. The next day I went early to Barran- uel Santos who was about to be inau- about to begin. On the appointed eve- quilla to draft a proposal. It was only two gurated as president of Colombia. ning, I met with García Márquez, his wife, pages long, with a description, inspired by This collective effort worked. By Mercedes, and a small group of mutual his ideas, outlining the institution what late July, Hollman, who had taken his friends from Barranquilla in a restaurant we eventually founded and named the family to Spain for security reasons, well-known for its good cuisine and with Fundación para un Nuevo Periodismo was asked by the State Department a name appropriate for a Nobel Prize Iberoamericano — FNPI (Foundation for to return to Bogotá where he received winner: The ABC Club, with the acronym a New Journalism in Ibero-America). his visa. standing for Art, Beauty and Culture. Little by little we began to build a net- Several weeks later, fully launched Between whiskies, the celebrated au- work of supporters for the project, or as into his Nieman year, he sent me an thor, then in his mid-sixties, recounted Gabo preferred to call them, “the accom- e-mail noting the “marvelous things” anecdotes about his beginnings as a plices.” We planned a program of work- that have happened, “like seeing my reporter in Cartagena’s El Universal, shops with a group of journalists headed kids going by themselves to the park in where his first editor, Clemente Manuel by the Argentine writer Tomás Eloy Mar- front the house without bodyguards. Zabala, corrected his texts with a red tínez, a veteran storyteller and founder of We see them playing every day from pencil. He recalled how he shared both good newspapers that tended to fare bad- the window and for the first time we bar sprees and literary pleasures with his ly for non-journalistic reasons. A year lat- are not afraid that something could intellectual friends when he was a jour- er, in April 1995, Mexican journalist and happen to them.” nalist at Barranquilla’s paper, El Heraldo. author Alma Guillermoprieto directed He also expressed his concern about the our first workshop, on long-form narra- Bob Giles will retire as curator at weighty theories in vogue still today in tive journalism, with a group of ten jour- the end of the Harvard school year in many communication and journalism nalists under the age of 30. Since then June 2011. He was a Nieman Fellow schools, and of his fear of interviewers (through December, 2010), the FNPI in 1966 and, over a long newspaper who trusted the mechanical parrot of the has organized more than 300 workshops career, edited newspapers in Akron, cassette recorder more than their own and seminars attended by more than Ohio; Rochester, New York; and De- memories. He proclaimed his conviction 8,000 journalists from every single Latin troit. He became curator in 2000. that reporting is a literary genre, and that American country. In fact, the FNPI has

8 ReVista spring | summer 2011 reflections

erage. Subjects that are vital to democracy and development of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as the electoral process, poverty, social change, environmental issues, business and economics reporting, and drug trafficking, are among the most important areas of effort and interest. For instance, the FNPI seminars have facilitated the exchange of knowledge and experience between reporters covering issues relat- ing to organized crime and citizen safety with economists, anthropologists, sociol- ogists, screenwriters, novelists and bloggers interested in studying the drug phenomenon. They are united around the Gabriel García Márquez (front row, center) and his wife, Mercedes, accompany FNPI teachers proposition of seeking new visions and and employees during a workshop in 2010. approaches in the treatment of a problem that has so many regional political become one of the most active journalism such as specialized publications, a web- and social ramifications. In other fields, training and professional development site, www.fnpi.org, and virtual networks, the Foundation holds an on-line ethics centers in the world. as well as a range of initiatives to col- clinic that has responded to more than There are more than a thousand com- laborate with and support independent, a thousand specific cases; it is a pioneer munication and journalism schools in public-spirited journalism, but its essen- in studies on the social responsibility of Latin America. What makes FNPI differ- tial focus is still on the practical train- communications media enterprises in ent? The answer lies in its focus on prac- ing workshops for reporters and editors Latin America; and its gathering, “New tical work, experience sharing and profes- with the vocation and aptitude necessary Chroniclers of the Indies,” has been a sional debate in an informal environment for researching stories and telling them platform for highlighting and promoting without academic requirements or theo- in a creative manner. Outstanding jour- new authors and magazines devoted to retical pretensions. “Life will take care nalists, writers and photographers from narrative journalism in the region. of deciding who is capable and who isn’t,” Europe, Latin America and the United In the fifteen years and several months as García Márquez put it. With arithme- States such as Alma Guillermoprieto, Jon that have passed since the FNPI began to tic simplicity, he argued that an essential Lee Anderson, Sergio Ramírez, María operate, fundamental changes have oc- factor in the defense of the integrity of a Teresa Ronderos, Francisco Goldman, curred in the craft, the business and the journalist, his or her independence, and at Susan Meiselas, Stephen Ferry, Mónica social function of journalism. Standards times even his or her life, is good profes- González, Rosental Alves, Miguel Ángel and values have changed, traditional me- sional training. This training can best be Bastenier, Daniel Santoro, are among the dia business structures have collapsed, provided in practice-oriented workshops master teachers who regularly lend their and multiple journalistic experiments for small groups. In journalism, ethics is time for the Foundation´s workshops. A have been attempted. At the same time, inseparable from technique. new generation of teachers is emerging wireless Internet and technological ad- From its headquarters in the colonial of FNPI alumni, like Juanita León (Co- vancements have generated constant and town of Cartagena, on the same street lombia), Julio Villanueva Chang (Perú), formidable challenges to the capacity of as the newspaper office where García Cristian Alarcón (Chile-Argentina) and journalists to identify, and to connect Márquez learned the reporter’s craft in Boris Muñoz (Venezuela). to, the interests of an increasingly frag- 1948, the FNPI has broadened its mis- The Foundation is always looking for mented public. It is a panorama that is sion to include exchange seminars and new ways to collaborate with journalists both exciting and confusing, a context in debates on subjects relevant to journal- from all over the world. Over the years which the Foundation is supporting inno- ism at the local and international level. the FNPI has built a network with more vation, experimentation and new initia- It also confers the most prestigious and than fifty like-minded organizations to tives without forgetting the need for the competitive journalism prize in Latin support the goal of promoting better- adaptation and transition of traditional America and Spain, as well as a lifetime informed societies by taking advantage media and journalists. achievement award. The Foundation of the digital media to promote investi- Some years ago, García Márquez and has developed resources for journalists gative journalism and quality news cov- I were in Monterrey, Mexico, to present

Photo courtesy of jaime abello drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 9 Journalism of the Americas

our annual New Journalism Awards. There had been several very intensive Journalism Training workdays, with a seminar on ethics, quality and journalistic enterprise, From Lapdogs to Watchdogs By Rosental Alves and it had concluded with a beautiful ceremony for the journalists from seven countries who received awards. There were even nighttime get-aways When I was a young Brazilian journal- society at large made this necessity for to enjoy salsa and vallenato, danced ist in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1970s, training even greater. with the same flavor and gusto as in I answered the phone in the newsroom By the turn of the century, I had al- Colombia’s Caribbean. At the end we several times to hear an ominous voice ready spent a few years as a journalism got together to talk about the pro- announcing that he was a federal police professor at the University of Texas at grams of our Foundation. I will never agent calling to read out a notice. It was Austin and had discovered this great ap- forget the glow in Gabito’s eyes when a censorship notification that invariably petite for training during frequent trips he said, “And to think that all of this would start with the words: “By superior to Latin America to teach seminars and was in our imagination!” order, it is prohibited the publication workshops. My own experience as a Bra- of…” During the 1970s, military dicta- zilian journalist, as well as those trips to Jaime Abello Banfihas been the torships that muzzled the press ruled in other countries, inspired me to dream of general director and CEO of the almost all Latin American countries. As the creation of a special program to offer Fundación Nuevo Periodismo journalists, we would try to test the limits training to journalists in Latin America Iberoamericano (FNPI), since 1995, of those regimes as much as possible. But and the Caribbean. My dream, however, when he worked on its creation with by and large we had no ways to disobey went beyond the traditional hit-and-run Gabriel García Márquez. A lawyer by censorship. Censorship was the main workshops of a couple of days that are training, he has nonetheless devoted problem for us, and went along with per- typical of media assistance programs for his professional life to the media, manent and very real threats of becom- developing countries. Instead, I wanted where he seeks to protect and foster ing a political prisoner, which happened to combine training with help for jour- independence, creativity and freedom to many colleagues. nalists to create their own, local, indepen- of information. In the last quarter of the 20th century, dent and self-sustainable organizations however, an unprecedented wave of de- with their own permanent professional Margery Sorock translated this article. mocracy swept across the hemisphere. As development programs. the new century arrived, elected govern- I was lucky to find a way to make that ments became the rule rather than the dream come true. Thanks to a gener- “Those who come to the Foundation exception in Latin America. Journalists ous grant from the John S. and James are brought there from every corner of enjoyed levels of freedom of expression L. Knight Foundation, we launched the Latin America, and every social niche. that had only been seen in their countries Knight Center for Journalism in the They range from green cub report- during rare and brief intervals between Americas at the University of Texas at ers to seasoned veterans well into dictatorships or coups d’état. Suddenly, Austin in June 2002. Since then, the their careers. There are those who are journalists who had fought for democ- Knight Center has reached thousands of self-taught and poor and from obscure racy were dealing with elected govern- journalists in all Latin American coun- provincial newspapers, and others who ments instead of the old dictatorships or tries and virtually all islands in the Carib- are urban sophisticates, who have had authoritarian regimes. The challenges of bean, with on-the-ground and online pro- the advantages of top-notch educa- dealing with elected governments were fessional training workshops, seminars tions, world travel and good incomes. different, more sophisticated and com- and courses. In early 2011, our distance Some of them are already media stars, plex in many aspects, despite the new learning program, which offers four- to household names in their countries. But levels of freedom. Throughout the years, six-week courses, passed the milestone of in Cartagena they are equals, and sit since that wave of democratization, many 5,000 journalists trained entirely online shoulder to shoulder as students. What reporters and editors felt that they were or in programs that combined online and brings them there is their desire to learn, not well prepared for their new role as in-person workshops. to improve their skills at communicating watchdogs in a more open, democratic In addition to providing training, their diverse realities, and, no doubt, environment. They needed training to we have successfully helped journalists the common hope that some of Gabo’s improve skills to be more effective at to create organizations that are differ- magic might rub off on them.” their jobs. Later, the huge impact of the ent from labor unions or traditional —JON LEE ANDERSON, THE NEW YORKER Digital Revolution on the media and on associations and much more effective

10 ReVista spring | summer 2011 reflections

in focusing on permanent training and The very concept of investigative administrations started to follow the professional development of reporters journalism seems to encapsulate the fashionable tendency of e-government, and editors. Some of our partner organi- goals of Latin American journalists to publishing a lot of raw data on the In- zations were created from scratch, with move forward in the ongoing democ- ternet. The data does not mean a lot for some help from us, but thanks mainly to ratization processes in their countries. an untrained journalist, but it can be re- the effort of the local journalists them- How to move from lapdog journalism to vealing and relevant to a journalist who selves, usually some of the most active watchdog journalism? In Latin Ameri- is well-trained and versed in CAR basic and dedicated reporters and editors in can countries with incipient democra- techniques. their countries. cies and little tradition of a free press, Besides investigative journalism, In 2002, in the wake of the assassina- this is the essential question for jour- Latin American journalists also are ea- tion of investigative reporter Tim Lopes nalists who want to aggressively pursue ger for training in the use of the Internet in Rio de Janeiro, we helped create the their role in the checks and balances of and other digital technologies. This is Brazilian Association of Investigative a democratic society. obviously a universal demand, but it is Journalism (Associação Brasileira de It is amazing what just a little bit of important to note that Latin America Jornalismo Investigativo, or ABRAJI). training can do. In 2003, for example, has a fast growing Internet market, with Modeled after the Investigative Report- we hosted the first “training of train- one of the highest levels of activity in ers and Editors (IRE) of the United ers” workshop on Computer-Assisted social media, for example. Latin Ameri- States, ABRAJI soon became one of the Reporting (CAR) in São Paulo, with cans in general, and Brazilians in par- most important organizations of journal- 22 journalists coming from 17 states ticular, seem to be more active in social ists in Brazil. Its annual congress paral- in Brazil. All of them had promised to networks than Americans or Europeans. leled the IRE’s in the number of partici- return to their newsrooms and teach Journalists are trying their best to un- pants and variety of sessions and topics, what they had just learned from two of derstand this phenomenon and adapt to and ABRAJI became a model for other the best trainers of the American IRE, the new media ecosystem that is rapidly organizations in the continent. Brant Houston (now a professor at the emerging. The Knight Center also helped to cre- University of Illinois) and Ron Nixon The Knight Center has broken its own ate the Center for Journalism and Public (now a New York Times investigative records for applications received from Ethics (CEPET) in Mexico, the Argentine reporter). Thus, when Marcelo Moreira Latin American journalists every time it Journalism Forum (FOPEA), the Peru- and Gabriela Mafort, from Globo TV in offers courses such as “How to Write for vian Network of Provincial Journalists, Rio de Janeiro, went back to their news- the Web,” “Digital Media Project Devel- the Paraguayan Journalists’ Forum (FO- room, they started having meetings with opment,” “Digital Tools for Investigative PEP), GuateDigital (a network of radio their colleagues explaining how to use Journalism,” and “Hyperlocal Journalism journalists in Guatemala) and the News- CAR techniques. That same week, the on the Web.” These courses are not only room Council (Consejo de Redacción, government of Rio de Janeiro issued its about the Web, but they are also taught CdR) in Colombia. In Chile, Ecuador and usual press release saying that violence entirely on the Web, on a distance-learn- the Dominican Republic, as well as a few was on the decline in Rio, highlighting ing platform that the center has developed other countries, there are ongoing efforts some figures that supposedly proved using an open-source course manage- to establish networks or organizations of their findings. The Globo team decided ment system called Moodle. The online journalists. to request the raw data and apply the courses proved to be ideal to teach jour- The number one request for training CAR techniques they had just learned, nalists in Latin America, since they offer throughout Latin America has been in of cross-checking the figures. Their ef- flexibility in terms of time. Students can investigative journalism. Reporters and fort yielded the opposite conclusion: log on to courses at any time, easily adapt- editors want to learn how to uncover in fact, violence was on the rise. All the ing the pace of their studies to their busy stories that governments and corpo- other newsrooms in Rio were shocked work schedule. We have enrolled more rations want to hide. They know that and had to change their stories when than 5,000 journalists from all over the those powers work in increasingly so- Globo’s evening news came out. hemisphere in almost 100 courses taught phisticated ways, with the help of pub- More and more journalists in Latin in English, Portuguese and Spanish by fel- lic relations experts, to control the flow America now know that interviewing the low journalists and scholars from a variety of information. Sometimes, it is clearly data before interviewing people makes of countries. an unfair game, with journalists who their investigations stronger. Simple An interesting chemistry arises when have received very little, if any, training skills like knowing how to import a journalists from different countries in on one side, and the powerful sources spreadsheet from the Web and cross- Latin America are united by their inter- helped by professional marketers on the check data have become extremely pow- est in training. The bond of community other side. erful tools in the region, especially after formation can last and generate positive

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 11 Journalism of the Americas

results and interesting collaborative projects. For example, the Consejo de Covering the Region Redacción (CdR), one of the youngest but most dynamic and creative jour- Fewer Foreign Correspondents By Josh Friedman nalists’ organizations in Latin Amer- ica, used the Knight Center’s distance learning platform to engage 89 journalists from 11 Latin American coun- Jonathan Kandell, a young reporter just who needs reliable information about the tries in an online training program a few years out of Columbia Journalism region to ply his craft, this is good. He that converged into a collective inves- School, won the newspaperman’s lottery can start his day in New York by reading tigation of carbon emissions trading in 1972. The New York Times sent him that morning’s leading Latin American in the countries of the region. to South America and, for the next five newspapers like Brazil’s Folha do São The CdR-led initiative, which years, he lived in great style as a foreign Paulo, Chile’s Mercurio and Argentina’s involves several similar organiza- correspondent based first in Buenos Ai- La Nación. He receives a constant flow of tions of journalists from all over the res, then Rio de Janeiro. news about the day’s events over the web hemisphere, symbolizes a new phase These were exciting times to cover from well-sourced analysts and bloggers. in the history of journalism in Latin South America—military coups, CIA “Frankly, I think the coverage is much America. There are still many politi- intrigue, political turmoil, murderous better because of the web,” says Kandell, cal challenges, a lot of pressure from regimes quick to jail or even kill journal- “There’s lot of very good stuff out there— governments that don’t understand ists. And in those days, the Times corre- not just the New York Times. And a lot is the watchdog role of journalists and spondent was an important, sometimes, more trustworthy.” a long way to go in the improvement singular, source of what was happening. But if you still want to see the world of the quality of journalism. The 21st He (most were men) lived almost as well through U.S. eyes, there is a big problem, century journalists of Latin America as an ambassador and had almost as says Daniel Butler, whose Washington need more training to play the impor- much access. Kandell flew first class. He staff provides intelligence briefings based tant role that corresponds to them in had an enormous expense account and a on open (public) sources. the young democracies of their coun- team of stringers around the continent In a speech at the National Press Club tries. They also need more training, as to help him. In each of his two posts, he last June, Butler, the assistant deputy do journalists from all over the world, belonged to a press community of more director for open source in the Office of to face the huge challenges of the Dig- than a dozen permanent U.S. newspaper, the Director of National Intelligence, ital Revolution that is transforming newsmagazine, wire service and network said U.S. intelligence analysts are los- the media ecosystem so profoundly. TV correspondents. ing “an important source of information” But it is a much different environ- Now that style of life is gone. Yes, because “the quantity, breadth, depth, ment from the one in which those there are still three New York Times bu- content and quality” of news from U.S. federal police agents would call my reaus in Latin America—but their report- journalists posted abroad was declining. newsroom in Rio de Janeiro to dictate ers survive on much thinner budgets. In He blamed decisions by many traditional a censorship notice. fact, as of last year, only a handful of U.S. news organizations to cut back the num- newspaper correspondents were left in ber of their correspondents overseas. Rosental Alves is the director and Latin America, among the few survivors The decline is indisputable. In the founder of the Knight Center for as American newspapers are outsourcing 1980s and 1990s, nearly a score of Ameri- Journalism in the Americas at the coverage of the world to others. can newspapers had foreign bureaus all University of Texas at Austin. He be- But that’s only half the picture. De- over Latin America. Among the best: gan his academic career in the United spite the pullback, a greater variety of n The Miami Herald had four bureaus in Latin States after 27 years as a professional news sources and perspectives is avail- America—Managua, Bogotá, Rio, Mexico City. journalist, including seven years as able to American readers. Most news of n The Boston Globe had bureaus in Bogotá, a journalism professor in Brazil. He Latin America now reaches the United Colombia, and Mexico City, two of six bureaus moved to Austin from Rio de Janeiro, States by Internet--and much of it is pro- around the world. where he was the managing editor duced by Latin Americans reporting on n Newsday had a bureau in Mexico City, one of and member of the board of direc- their home countries. And many aren’t six bureaus around the world. tors of Jornal do Brasil. He was the even traditional journalists—but blog- n Cox Newspapers had a bureau in Mexico City. first Brazilian awarded a Nieman gers, financial analysts and scholars. n The San Jose Mercury had a bureau in Mexico. Fellowship (1987-88) at Harvard For some like Kandell, now a success- n The Baltimore Sun had a bureau in Rio de University. ful freelance magazine writer and author Janeiro in the 1970’s, one of eight bureaus

12 ReVista spring | summer 2011 reflections

Bill Gentile is typical of the scores of U.S. journalists who used to cover the Americas for print outlets that have now disappeared or retreated from coverage of the region by eliminating or reducing the number of correspondents. Gentile, who first worked in Nicaragua reporting on the 1979 Sandinista Revolution for United Press International (UPI), is shown here covering the 1980s Contra War for Newsweek in the northern mountains of Nicaragua. Now a journalism professor at American University, Gentile is hosting “Backpack Documentary Expedition: Nicara- gua,” a 10-day immersion in the process of documentary filmmaking. Participants will follow U.S. volunteers for Bridges to Community to learn the essence of documentary—using media to transform the world. See http://www.billgentile.com/expedition.php.

around the world. around the world has dropped by close to pers had cut more than a quarter of n The Chicago Tribune Company had a South a third in less than a decade, according to their full-time staffers in the past nine American bureau and had opened a Havana a count taken primarily last July by the years—13,500 staff cuts since 2007, bureau in 2001. American Journalism Review. That tally 5,200 jobs cut just in 2009. Now none of the above newspapers counted 234 full-time staff members Foreign bureaus are the first and have bureaus in Latin America—or any- plus contract writers (including one va- easiest candidates for cost-cutting, since where else in the world. cancy) employed by 10 newspapers and maintaining a foreign bureau costs be- n Only a few of the largest U.S. papers still de- one chain, In a 2003 census, the AJR tween a quarter and half a million dollars ploy reporters to the region—and minimally counted 307 full-time correspondents a year. The effect on U.S. foreign coverage at that. As of last year: and those pending assignment—and that is even greater when you recognize that n The Washington Post had only one full-time count did not include contract writers. the cuts disproportionately affect higher Latin American bureau—in Mexico City. Its Much of this is due to media concen- paid, more experienced journalists with Rio bureau had been vacant for a year with tration gone awry—added to a perfect specialized knowledge of regions like no likelihood it would be reactivated. The storm of long-term technological change Latin America. Post downgraded its Bogotá bureau from full and more recent financial collapse. Huge The shrinking process resembled a to half time a few years ago and now shares media companies went into debt in the feeding frenzy. a Bogotá correspondent with National Public boom time of the 1990s and early 2000s The Tribune Company, now in bank- Radio. to buy up newspapers, but then could ruptcy, swallowed up the Los Angeles n The Los Angeles Times has only a Mexico City not borrow more to keep going when the Times, Newsday and the Baltimore Sun bureau. Its former full-time Bogotá bureau economy collapsed. and, with its own Tribune foreign staff, chief has been put on a stringer contract. Rick Edmunds of the Poynter Insti- cut foreign bureaus mercilessly. n The New York Times and the Wall Street Jour- tute reported last year that strapped for The McClatchy Company swallowed nal each have three bureaus—The Times in money, panicked newspapers had spent up the Knight Ridder newspaper chain, Caracas, Rio, and Mexico City and the Jour- $1.6 billion less on news annually in the then had to cut back, eliminating its Rio nal in São Paulo, Mexico City and Rio. previous three years. And that comes on bureau two years ago and its Caracas top of several years of budget pressure bureau the year before, leaving only one This is a worldwide phenomenon. caused by falling readership. bureau in Mexico City. The former jewel In very rough numbers, the corps of Last year, the American Society of in Knight-Ridder’s Latin American cov- U.S. newspaper foreign correspondents News Editors reported that newspa- erage, the Miami Herald, is left only with

photo by Scott Wallace drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 13 Journalism of the Americas

a Miami-based parachuting reporter to because fewer people are buying and reading few months overseas, the organizations cover all of South America. newspapers. are becoming a good resource for free- The St. Petersburg Times, one of the n Newspaper circulation has been dropping lancers abroad. South’s highest quality newspapers, elim- for years and the downward curve is getting The International Reporting Proj- inated its Latin American correspondent steeper. It fell 10.6 daily and 7.1 percent Sun- ect, for example, gives out 32 reporting position two years ago. day from 2008 to 2009. The only major pa- fellowships each year. It has sent 300 Of course Associated Press and per not to lose circulation was the Wall Street journalists to report in more than 85 Bloomberg News still have extensive cov- Journal, which had a tiny 0.6 percent rise. countries. The Pulitzer Center on Crisis erage around the world, including Latin Readership is going down for all age groups, Reporting has a similar model. America. Bloomberg alone now has 11 although readers 18 to 34 had the lowest lev- Blogs are increasing throughout Latin Latin American bureaus. els. Just a little more than one-quarter of them America. American readers who know U.S. TV networks are mostly gone said they had read a daily paper the day be- Spanish or Portuguese can follow them from Latin America with only occasional fore, according to Scarborough Research. The and read daily newspapers from through- representation in Havana and Mexico decline is on all education levels. out the continent. And much is in English. City, although NBC claims to have one n You may think that this decline is amelio- Here is just a taste: Latin American bureau and ABC three. rated because younger people are replacing n Non-profits like the Americas Society and the The only serious U.S. cable TV attempt daily newspaper reading with reading news- Council of the Americas aggregate news of to cover Latin America is CNN, with six paper sites on the web. Yes, unique visitors of the Americas at http://www.as-coa.org. The bureaus in Latin America, five just in newspaper sites were up 14 percent from the Inter-American Dialogue publishes a daily South America—Bogotá, Buenos Aires. third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of newsletter called the Latin American Advisor. Caracas, Mexico City, Havana, Santiago 2009—to 74 million readers, according to Press can get a free subscription through the- and São Paulo. Nielsen Online. But the average visitor spent dialogue.org Ironically the most extensive English- only about a half hour a month looking at a n Many journalists turn to Colombia’s Semana. language broadcast news about Latin newspaper site. com at http://www.semana.com/Home.aspx America is coming from foreign countries. and El Tiempo at http://www.eltiempo.com/, Al Jazeera has bureaus in Bogotá, Buenos On the supply side, however, all is not Spain’s El País at http://www.elpais.com/ Aires, Caracas, Mexico City and São Paulo. negative. Technology is neither good nor global/, Nicaragua’s Confidencial at http:// And BBC has full-time foreign correspon- bad. It is what it is and many good new www.confidencial.com.ni/, and http://www. dents in São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Mexico sources are springing up to fill the vacu- bbc.co.uk/mundo, to name just a few. During City and Havana. In fact, according to a um left as traditional U.S. newspaper cor- the Haiti earthquake, the Haitian diaspora recent survey by Nielsen Media Research, respondents vanish from Latin America. was glued to http://www.signalfmhaiti.com/. many viewers in Washington who want Young U.S. journalists, who would n And if there is any doubt about the quality of international coverage in English often have had to spend years working their these sources, please check out El Salvador’s turn to BBC, Russia Today, Al Jazeera, way up to a foreign posting, can become El Faro http://elfaro.net/ (see p. 41). Last Deutsche Welle, France 24, Euronews, instant free-lance foreign correspon- year, its young editor, Carlos Dada, published and China Central Television. dents. With a few thousand dollars worth a beautifully written long-form investigation For years, technological change has of lightweight video and audio equip- that revealed the likely assassin of Msgr. Oscar been cutting into newspaper readership ment and a laptop, they can function Romero on the 30th anniversary of his mur- and ad revenue. Short-term, the assault quite cheaply on their own. der. This was journalism of the highest order. has been economic. Lower consumption New digital media like GlobalPost has eaten into ads for real estate, autos, offer the prospect of a more secure free- Josh Friedman is the director of the Ma- jobs appliances and department stores. lance role. Just two years old, GlobalPost ria Moors Cabot Prizes at Columbia Uni- The picture is very bleak, according to employs more than 70 correspondents versity’s Graduate School of Journalism. “2010 State of the Media” a comprehen- in more than 50 countries—including He is the recipient of numerous journal- sive report by the Project for Excellence Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, ism awards including the 1985 Pulitzer in Journalism. According to data in the Canada, Costa Rica and Venezuela. Ma- Prize for International Reporting. He report: jor U.S. media like CBS have recently did most of his newspaper reporting at signed up to buy some of their coverage. Newsday and the Philadelphia Inquirer n Classified income fell 70 percent from $19.6 Then there is the model of non-profit and was editor of the Soho News. Long- billion to $6 billion in the last three years. Ad organizations sponsoring journalists time board member and former chair revenue in general fell by 23 percent in 2007 for one-time reporting projects in Latin of the Committee to Protect Journalists, and 2008, fell another 26 percent in 2009. America. Once a way for newspaper re- he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in n Display ad rates started falling in mid-2007 porters with a domestic beat to spend a Costa Rica from 1964 to 1966.

14 ReVista spring | summer 2011 under attack

What’s New in Latin American Journalism

An Overview By Graciela Mochkofsky

From deep disappointment to exciting new times: if that were a good title, it would be the title of this story. Just three years ago, after spending 17 years as a political correspondent and columnist with major Buenos Aires newspapers, I took a break from Argenti- na’s media. Journalism had been my life, but like so many reporters of my generation, who had experienced the good days of journalism, I grew disenchanted and sad about what it had become. In Argentina, there was little talk about the death of newspapers. We did not live the widespread disaster of the United States press, with papers closing down, thousands of reporters being laid off and the traditional business model for print journalism in agony. But my generation was leaving the newsroom, looking to the future with uncertainty— when not hunting for a different profession altogether. Today, the landscape has changed dramatically. A new wave of independent, forward-thinking and critical journalism is spreading throughout the continent. This journalism is not in the hands of young, new reporters: it is the experienced journalists of my generation shaping a new model of journalism nur- tured by his and her (our!) frustration with Latin America’s mainstream media.

Common ground There is of course no such thing as Latin American journalism. Our countries and experiences are different, but most of us share some common problems. To different degrees and at varying speeds, the worldwide crisis of the traditional media—decrease of paper readership, migration to digital platforms, changes in the information paradigm, lack

artwork by ricardo trotti drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 15 Journalism of the Americas

of a new business model—is beginning to gion is U.S. philanthropist George Soros’ watchdog journalism project. They have hit most Latin American countries. Open Society Foundation, which up until exposed cases of corruption and abuse of Throughout the continent, readers three years ago had shown almost no in- power with a degree of independence and (and often even the reporters) ignore terest in Latin America. freedom almost impossible to find today who actually owns media companies. In Finally, we are in the presence of a in the country’s established media. Gor- many cases, the particular interests of generation of experienced reporters with riti’s training requirements for his young owners allow for little editorial indepen- entrepreneurial spirit and a strong self- reporters include taking classes of Krav dence; political ties hide behind a façade awareness of being the avant-garde of a Maga, the Israeli hand-to-hand combat of political independence. journalistic revolution. technique. We also share, in very general terms, In Chile, we found very diverse expe- low salaries, corruption in the news- The new wave riences, from Mónica González’ investi- room, low professional standards and On March 2010, my husband and col- gative non-profit organization CIPER unfair internal promotion rules, which league Gabriel Pasquini and I launched for high-quality watchdog journalism, bring to the top the bureaucrat and the el puercoespín, a digital magazine and to the satirical magazine The Clinic, to obedient individual—ready to censor our own personal experiment with new a network of a dozen citizen journalism their subordinates—instead of the hard media. As part of our exploration of new dailies. working, talented reporter. ways of narrating the world and fore- In Mexico, we found Nuestra Aparente For the most part, content production casting the journalisms of the future, we Rendición, a collective blog managed by is in the hands of large media companies; started drawing a narrative map of Latin writer Lolita Bosch under the premise the independent bloggers, the high-qual- America’s new media experiences. that only civil society can save Mexico ity information website, are few and far In Colombia, we found La Silla from total disaster. It posts stories, per- between. In part, the lack of growth until Vacía, founded by our friend Juanita sonal testimony, literature and art about recently in this area comes from the fact León, who has the skills and talent of a the violence, in a collective effort to find that Internet connectivity is deeply un- solid editor and the determination and a way out of the violence. even throughout the continent. strength of a business entrepreneur. In Argentina, we found chequeado.com, Local funding for independent media Her website, which has been online for a local version of the U.S. site FactCheck outlets is very hard to come by. The local almost two years now, is an indepen- and a reaction against the political polar- capitalist is still fond of the traditional dent attempt to cover the powerful in ization of the country’s media. media and their traditional game. But we Colombia—in León’s own words, the site This is an incomplete map and a work also have common advantages. deals with “how power is exercised”—in in progress. There are more websites, We share the great, unique advantage ways the traditional media never have in blogs, newspapers and magazines al- of a continental language, Spanish (with, her country. It is a successful enterprise, ready changing journalism in our coun- of course, the exception of Brazil and hosting more than sixty political blogs tries, and we expect to see many more Portuguese, which is a world of its own). and with an active participation from a emerge in 2011. We are the fastest growing region in growing audience. the world in Internet connectivity (23 In El Salvador, we found El Faro, the Graciela Mochkofsky, a 2009 Nieman percent in 2009, though the penetration most unlikely digital publication. El Faro fellow at Harvard, is the co-founder rates are still relatively low). This creates is the brainchild of Carlos Dada, who in and editor of digital magazine el a special and emerging opportunity for 1998 had the crazy idea of launching an puercoespín (www.elpuercoespin.com. the development of new media outlets: Internet publication in a country emerg- ar). She is the author of four nonfic- costs are relatively low, structures small, ing from a cruel civil war and with al- tion books, among them Timerman. El and one of the great historical impedi- most no Internet connections—he did it periodista que quiso ser parte del poder ments for building a regional presence— out of lack of funds more than of clair- (1923-1999), a biography of legendary the financial and many practical - prob voyance about the future of journalism. Argentine journalist Jacobo Timerman lems of continental distribution—has El Faro specializes in hardcore inves- (Ed. Sudamericana, 2003). Her fifth disappeared. tigative journalism and long narrative nonfiction book, about press and politics The growing Internet market is at- form, carried out under very difficult in Argentina, is coming out in 2011. She tracting the interest of European, Arab circumstances. The digital publication lives in Buenos Aires. and Chinese companies and organiza- has gained prestige and admiration tions—which goes hand in hand with throughout the continent. the impressive new wave of economic In Perú, we found IDL-Reporteros, More on New Voices can be found in the interest in the region. One of the major where veteran Gustavo Gorriti leads section by the same name on pages 31-44 funders for new digital outlets in the re- a small group of young reporters in a of this magazine.

16 ReVista spring | summer 2011 under attack

Despite formal democracy in much of the region, the press in Latin America is often the subject of attacks, including murder, censorship, threats and insults, as well as restrictive press laws. Challenges can come from both governments and extralegal groups.

n Indirect Censorship 18 n Freedom of Expression in Latin America 21 n Silencing the Media 23 n Beyond Intimidation and Exile 25 n The Law as Censor 28

artistartwork credit by ricardo name and trotti url drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 17 Journalism of the Americas

Indirect Censorship

Journalism in a Difficult Context By Ricardo Trotti

To talk about press freedom, it’s neces- duras and Mexico—are all part of the attacks on the media, including kidnap- sary to talk about democracy. Both are problem. A recent report by the Chilean pings, threats and murders—is now intimately related. The quality of the one polling firm Latinobarómetro indicates more prevalent than direct censorship affects the other. Latin America is not that 27% of the murders in the world against the press—23 journalists were immune from this equation, since both take place in Latin America, which has murdered in the region in 2010. Both di- press freedom and democracy exist in only 8% of the world’s population. One rect and indirect censorship are intended a context with persistent structural and out of every three Latin Americans to provoke self-censorship in which the historic problems. (200 million) has been the victims of media and journalists silence themselves In the last twenty years, the region some kind of crime. because of fear of the consequences. has made great strides in achieving for- With a few exceptions like Chile, Costa mal democracy, but its institutions are Rica and Uruguay, Latin America leads Smear Campaigns very weak. In many cases, states have not the lists of governmental corruption in Many governments claim the existence been able to take care of their citizens’ the world and corruption is tending to of complete freedom of the press in their basic necessities. In many countries, all increase. Multinational companies— countries. For example, Argentine presi- three branches of government have ex- IBM in Argentina, Chevron in Ecuador dent Cristina de Kirchner recently as- tremely low rates of credibility. Even and Chiquita in Central America—also serted in a political rally that everyone more worrisome is that the vital signs contribute to this phenomenon. could say anything they wanted in that of democracy are weakening in certain Despite some advances in literacy in country. areas: for example, in the lack of inde- countries such as Cuba, Brazil and Ven- But that is only a half-truth. Press pendence among the three branches of ezuela, most education systems do not freedom involves not only the right to ex- government, transparency in elections prepare the work force to compete in a press oneself, but also the right not to be and citizen participation, as well as of globalized world, leading to high unem- harassed or persecuted for that expres- respect for institutions, including the ployment. According to the Food and sion. And this is not the case in Argen- press. Statistics published by Freedom Agricultural Organization of the United tina today, nor in Venezuela, Nicaragua, House at the beginning of 2011 indicate Nations, there are 53 million undernour- Ecuador or Bolivia, whose governments that democracy has suffered setbacks in ished people in Latin America. Latin discriminate and retaliate systematically 25 countries throughout the world, in- Americans with university education against independent media and journal- cluding three in Latin America: Haiti, tend to emigrate, causing a brain drain. ists who are critical in their reporting. Mexico and Venezuela. Governments frequently conduct sys- The lack of an independent judicial A Difficult Context tematic smear campaigns to discredit branch, which is used as a political in- To practice journalism in this context is journalists and the media. Hugo Chávez strument of power in countries like Bo- not easy. The press frequently suffers the has accused journalists of promoting livia, Nicaragua and Venezuela, is nota- consequences of its own lack of profes- coups; Rafael Correa claims the Ecua- ble. In addition, in many governments in sionalism and independence and of the doran media advocate in favor of the the region, power is concentrated in the absence or weakness of other institutions bourgeoisie; Evo Morales characterizes executive branch and opposition political such as political parties. Denunciations the media as servants of imperialism. parties are very weak. and investigations provoke retaliatory Measures against the press are some- Eight out of every ten people in Lat- measures from governments, as well as times crude and obvious, such as shut- in America feel inadequatedly protect- from the power elite, organized crime ting down media in Venezuela, accused by their government. In many cities, and other extralegal groups. ing an Ecuadoran journalist of being a they live in a permanent climate of in- Press laws frequently attempt to con- terrorist when he kicked a teargas gre- security. Increase in drug trafficking, trol journalistic content. Independent nade in the direction of the president or organized crime, juvenile gangs, and journalists have been arbitrarily jailed accusing—without any evidence—the in many cases, corruption within the in Cuba. However, there are many other executives of the Argentine newspapers government itself—especially within forms of control that affect the free prac- Clarín and La Nación of crimes against the police force, as in Guatemala, Hon- tice of journalism. Indirect censorship— humanity for having purchased a paper

18 ReVista spring | summer 2011 journalists under attack

mill during the dictatorship. But some- tive branch spent $27 million in public The State as “Informer” times the measures are much more sub- funds on official advertising, of which In Argentina, Nicaragua, Ecuador and tle, aimed at undermining the economic 67.5% was allotted to Channel 9, prop- Venezuela, the economic stranglehold base of the media. erty of a businessman closely allied with of the media tends to have shameful ex- the government, even though other tortionist intentions. Governments, their Economic Coercion channels have larger audiences and officials or strawmen lie in wait to buy Economic pressure on the media comes higher ratings. private media in trouble or simply set in many forms, including discrimination In Nicaragua, several small regional up new private media with public funds, in the placement of official advertising or newspapers and radio stations had to not to serve as public media (like public in granting licenses to operate radio and shut their doors in 2010 because of the broadcasting) but to work in their own television stations; heavy or unfair taxa- withdrawal of official advertising in re- self-interest. tion; and creating obstacles that affect taliation for failing to editorially “benefit” The friends of “Kirchnerism” in Ar- the import of supplies and the distribu- the government of Daniel Ortega. gentina eagerly await the Audiovisual tion of news. In both Argentina and Nicaragua, Communication Services Act in which Discriminatory placement of official unions are politically manipulated to Article 161 obliges businesses to divest advertising to reward the compliant take action against the media. In both themselves of media in less than a year, press and to punish the independent and Buenos Aires and Managua, unions— although the government has already critical press continues to be the most fre- which share common ideologies with been buying up media across the country quent form of corruption and influence, the respective governments—frequently in order to maintain a well-oiled propa- one that is very difficult to combat. Offi- block the distribution channels of local ganda machine in the wake of this year’s cial advertising in Latin America is often newspapers. October elections. a large part of a newspaper’s revenue, yet In other countries, governments In Nicaragua, President Daniel Or- governments continue to be reluctant to adopt other mechanisms of economic tega became the sole private owner of enact norms of transparency that would coercion. The implementation of special Channels 4 and 5 and radio stations oblige them to distribute advertising in a taxes and holding up newspaper print Ya and Sandino with public funds, ac- fair manner, using technical criteria. and other imported materials in customs cording to charges of corruption made In Argentina, which has a history of were characteristic measures of the for- against him. President Chávez in Ven- governments using this mechanism of mer governments of Argentine president ezuela expropriated RCTV in 2007, as pressure, the newspaper La Nación of Juan Domingo Perón and the PRI in well as five other cable channels and 34 Buenos Aires revealed that the execu- Mexico. radio stations. Meanwhile, he created

artwork by ricardo trotti drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 19 Journalism of the Americas

238 radio stations, 28 television stations, the Law on Social Responsibility and the Less Democracy, 340 print media, more than 125 sites for Telecommunications Law. More Attacks propaganda on the Internet, and a multi- The new norms oblige Internet pro- In former times—as well as now—it has media international news agency. viders to restrict the diffusion of informa- been shown that the degree of a govern- Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa tion and access to websites that criticize ment’s authoritarianism is directly pro- confiscated television channels and a the government or promote public disor- portional the time it spends on control- newspaper, and used public funds to cre- der or acts against national security. ling the press. And the more time that is ate the newspaper Periódico Popular, These attacks are not new. The spent in this effort, the more stubborn which strategically competes against the Chávez government previously at- and vengeful the government becomes other print media with the pretext that tempted to close Globovisión, the only against journalism. all the media lie—except for the govern- television station with a critical voice, Attacks on press freedom in Latin ment press. In Bolivia, President Evo and it has now appropriated 20% of America will continue unless democracy Morales created a network of commu- the station ownership. The new norms and the institutional climate improve. nitarian radios and television, and pur- establish more restrictive criteria for The two, as I said at the beginning of this chased print media with funds provided property ownership and operation that article, are inseparable. And if democra- by the Venezuelan government—media make it almost impossible for the sta- cy deteriorates, attacks against the press that he uses for personal interests. tion president, Guillermo Zuloaga, who will continue to multiply. is seeking political asylum in the United Press Laws States, to continue as the owner. Ricardo Trotti is the Press Freedom The methods of indirect censorship are In Ecuador, debate continues about director and director of the Press Insti- implicit and permitted in laws adopted the proposed Law of Communication, tute of the Miami-based Inter American in Venezuela and Argentina. The approv- which would create a regulatory council Press Association, where he directs vari- al of similar measures is expected in Ec- that could meddle with television, radio ous projects dealing with the freedom of uador this year, and likely forthcoming in and print media contents. In January of press and the training of journalists and Bolivia and Brazil. this year, Rafael Correa proposed a refer- media executives. Before the end of 2010, the Venezu- endum in which two of the ten questions He is also a self-taught artist whose elan government hastened to approve related to the media. In particular, he set illustrations grace the cover of this statutes restricting media, including the forth the need for the state to limit media magazine as well as throughout this Internet and social media such as Twit- ownership and its contents when these af- issue (see pages 2, 7, 15, 17, 19, 20, 23, 25, ter and Facebook, through reforms to fect the generally accepted moral code. 29, 30, and inside back cover).

20 ReVista spring | summer 2011 artwork by ricardo trotti under attack

Freedom of Expression in Latin America The Inter-American Human Rights System by Catalina Botero Marino and Michael J. Camilleri

In June 1997, Chile’s Supreme Court upheld Against this backdrop, the inter- In these cases and others, the inter- a ban on the film “The Last Temptation American human rights system—com- American system has issued landmark of Christ,” based on a Pinochet-era proposed of the Inter-American Commis- decisions that not only provided indi- vision of the country’s constitution. Four sion on Human Rights (including, since vidual relief but sought far-reaching le- years later, the Inter-American Court of 1998, its Office of the Special Rapporteur gal and practical consequences. Perhaps Human Rights heard a challenge to this for Freedom of Expression) and the In- even more significantly, states in the ban and issued a very different decision. ter-American Court of Human Rights— region have for the most part complied The hemisphere’s highest human rights has played a critical role in rolling back with these orders by reforming their tribunal found that in censoring the film the vestiges of authoritarianism in Latin domestic laws to better comply with Chile had violated its international obli- American legal codes and thus consoli- hemispheric legal norms. Over time, in- gation to respect freedom of thought and dating the transition to democratic forms ter-American case law has been directly expression. It ordered Chile not just to of government. incorporated into the national legisla- allow “The Last Temptation of Christ” to Over the past decade, journalists and tion and jurisprudence of a number of be screened, but also to modify its consti- civil society advocates have successfully Latin American countries. In recent tution so that such censorship would not petitioned the Inter-American Commis- years, for example, Uruguay and Argen- be repeated in the future. sion and Court to strike down judicial de- tina decriminalized speech regarding As the Inter-American Court’s first cisions that restricted free speech, as well matters of public interest; the Federal freedom of expression judgment, it was as the laws on which they were based. Supreme Court of Brazil struck down a a landmark ruling. But what happened When Costa Rican journalist Mauricio dictatorship-era press law that resulted next was even more remarkable: within a few months, Chile complied with the Court’s decision by amending its constitution and consigning film censorship to The emergence of the inter-American system as a its authoritarian past. meaningful forum for human rights protection has Fortunately, direct prior censorship has all but disappeared today not just both buttressed and deepened democratic transitions. in Chile but in the vast majority of Latin America (Cuba being the notable exception), and the region is freer and more Herrera Ulloa was convicted of criminal in censorship and imposed severe pen- democratic because of it. Indeed, during defamation for reporting on alleged acts alties for criminal defamation offenses; the last two decades of the 20th century, of corruption, the Inter-American Court the Constitutional Court of Colombia is- there was a genuine democratic rebirth overturned his conviction. When the sued a decision protecting the right to in Latin America, marked by the fall of owner of a Peruvian television station was confidential sources; and the Supreme military dictatorships, the end of the stripped of his nationality and his control Court of Mexico struck down a vague Cold War, and the adoption of democrat- over his station after it aired reports on criminal law that protected the honor ic, rights-protective constitutions. corruption and human rights abuses, the and privacy of public officials. Further- Nonetheless, in the area of free speech Inter-American Court ordered Peru to more, in the last decade, great progress the legal remnants of authoritarianism restore his rights. And when a Chilean has been made in removing some— often persisted long after democracy was environmental organization was denied though not all—of the more nefarious restored. Under anachronistic desacato government information about a logging speech prohibitions, such as desacato (contempt) laws, for example, journalists project, the Inter-American Court or- laws, from the criminal codes of a num- and others in many countries risked jail dered Chile to turn over the information ber of Latin American countries. terms when expressing opinions critical and strengthen its access to information We believe that while much of the of public officials or institutions. laws and procedures. progress in the area of freedom of ex-

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 21 Journalism of the Americas

pression can be attributed to the demo- programs for journalists and special countries face challenges in providing ef- cratic explosion in Latin America in the prosecutorial units to investigate crimes fective and appropriate mechanisms for 1980s and early 1990s, the simultaneous against them. requesting access to government infor- emergence of the inter-American system Second, in spite of the aforemen- mation, and guaranteeing effective and as a meaningful forum for human rights tioned progress in rolling back desacato independent controls to prevent adminis- protection has both buttressed and deep- laws, many countries in Latin America trative arbitrariness in granting or refus- ened democratic transitions, not least by still use criminal laws to punish speech ing access. promoting a robust interpretation of the and silence dissident voices. Those who Finally, the public debate in Latin right to freedom of expression. criticize public officials or institutions America often suffers from a lack of par- However, a number of important continue to risk prison terms for crimes ticipation by social groups that have suf- challenges remain in the struggle to such as defamation in a number of coun- fered discrimination or marginalization. guarantee free speech in Latin America. tries in the region. Furthermore, other Such groups lack access to institutional The Office of the Special Rapporteur for criminal offenses are sometimes used to or private channels for the serious, robust Freedom of Expression calls these con- criminalize social protest or the expres- and consistent exercise of their right to tinuing challenges our “Hemispheric sion of opinions that differ from those of publicly express their ideas and opinions Agenda for the Defense of Freedom of the authorities. or to be informed of the issues that af- Expression.” Third, while enormous progress has fect them. Society, in turn, is deprived of First, the region has an alarming, lin- been made in eradicating direct prior knowledge about their interests, customs, gering history of violence against jour- censorship in the region, several forms needs and ideas. States must therefore nalists and impunity with regard to such of indirect censorship now pose a sig- combat excessive concentration in the crimes. A 2008 study by the Office of the nificant concern, including the arbitrary control and ownership of communications Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Ex- allocation of public resources such as media, while taking affirmative steps to pression on the murder of journalists and government advertising, frequencies or facilitate the participation of historically media workers between 1995 and 2005 subsidies; the arbitrary use of the mech- marginalized groups in the marketplace identified 157 deaths in 19 countries in anisms of regulation and oversight; and of ideas. Recognizing and facilitating the the hemisphere for reasons possibly re- the creation of an environment of intimi- operation of community broadcasters is lated to the practice of journalism. The dation that inhibits dissident speech. crucial is this regard. study found that the investigations into Fourth, the hemisphere faces diverse These challenges, and many others, these crimes are, overwhelmingly, slow challenges on the subject of access to pub- can only be met through the combined ef- and plagued by serious procedural de- lic information. A number of countries forts of a variety of actors, including gov- ficiencies, to the point that they neither still have not enacted access to informa- ernments, the press and civil society. The established the facts nor punished those tion laws and the accompanying enforce- inter-American human rights system will responsible. Convictions (of any kind) ment regimes. In other countries, laws continue to play an important subsidiary were handed down in only 32 of the 157 exist but may fall short of inter-American role in the struggle to strengthen freedom cases examined. standards establishing that every person of expression in the Americas, supporting Unfortunately, the violence contin- has the human right to access to infor- the efforts of policymakers, press asso- ues. In 2010, 27 journalists were killed in mation administered or produced by the ciations, non-governmental organizations Latin America, including nine journal- state, without needing to prove a special and concerned citizens, while calling gov- ists in Honduras and thirteen in Mexico. interest in the information. Still other ernments to account when they fall short While in the region’s authoritarian past of hemispheric free speech standards. governments themselves were responsible for much of the violent repression Catalina Botero Marino, a Colombian against critical voices, today powerful lawyer, has served as Special Rapporteur non-state actors—especially organized for Freedom of Expression of the Inter- crime—have emerged as the principal American Commission on Human Rights threat to the lives and integrity of jour- since 2008. nalists, particularly those who report on issues such as drug trafficking, corrup- Michael J. Camilleri, Harvard J.D. ’04 tion and public security. This alarming is a Human Rights Specialist with the Of- situation requires governments in the fice of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom countries where media workers are most of Expression. Information about the Of- at risk to take urgent and decisive action, Special Rapporteur Catalina Botero Marino fice of the Special Rapporteur is available such as the establishment of protection speaks at a press conference. at: http://www.cidh.oas.org/relatoria/.

22 ReVista spring | summer 2011 photo courtesy of michael camilleri journalists under attack

Silencing the Media

Crime Syndicates and Repressive Governments By Carlos Lauría

Citizens’ rights to be informed on issues The unprecedented number of murders, office in December 2006 and launched of public interest are being undermined attacks, disappearances and threats are a massive offensive against drug cartels, throughout Latin America, damaging devastating investigative journalism. As according to the Attorney General’s Of- the health of democracy across the re- a result, scores of journalists are forced fice. The killings reached their highest gion. Violence from powerful criminal to censor themselves; their media outlets level in 2010, jumping by almost 60 per- syndicates, abuse of state resources by often keep quiet to survive. cent from the previous year. More than authoritarian governments, and politi- Powerful drug organizations disput- 30 journalists have been killed or disap- cized judicial rulings are all producing ing territory in Mexico, guerrillas and peared during Calderón’s mandate, mak- increasing media censorship. Although paramilitaries in war-ravaged areas of ing Mexico one of the world’s most dan- not as blatant as during the era of mili- Colombia, criminal groups in politically gerous countries for the press. tary dictatorships, when journalists were volatile Honduras, violent street gangs Mexican journalists outside Mexico murdered and “disappeared” in large in Guatemala, and drug traffickers in the City have almost abandoned any sort of numbers and armed forces dictated what Brazilian slums are terrorizing the news investigative work. Basic reporting on could be reported, the re-emergence of media. Undermined by pervasive corrup- crime has become a serious challenge in censorship and self-censorship in the re- tion and judiciaries that are as overbur- many areas across the country. Reporters gion is deeply worrisome. dened as they are dysfunctional, govern- are terrorized, while state authorities— Widespread violence and lawless- ments across the region have failed to largely fearful of (or corrupted by) drug ness have spread over the region in the provide security, leaving the media wide lords—are unwilling to carry out their re- last decade, undermining political sta- open to attacks. sponsibilities. In Reynosa, a border town bility and threatening the future of de- More than 30,000 people have been in the state of Tamaulipas, the drug car- mocracy. Reporters and media covering killed in drug-related murders since tels have total control over the city. They organized crime have come under siege. Mexican President Felipe Calderón took also control the flow of information,

artwork by ricardo trotti drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 23 Journalism of the Americas

and dictate what is news and what isn’t. Tocoa region, was gunned down by un- mittee to Protect Journalists shows that Shootouts in broad daylight, killings and identified assailants while he was driving during the five-decade civil conflict, jour- cartel-blockades are not even covered. home the night of March 24, 2010. Pala- nalists and editors—particularly those Reporters have been cowed into silence cios had strongly opposed the 2009 coup in the areas controlled by illegal armed out of fear of violence. and turned Channel 5 into an opposition actors—regularly censored themselves, The 2008 killing of veteran crime station, according to his colleagues. He fearing retribution from all sides. While reporter Armando Rodríguez Carreón, had been harassed, threatened and final- lethal violence has ceded since 2002, known as “El Choco,” shocked even vi- ly detained by military personnel in June Colombia is still one of the world’s most olence-plagued Ciudad Juárez, which 2009. The Inter-American Commission dangerous countries for the press. sits on the border with Texas. Rodríguez on Human Rights recommended pre- In Venezuela, the decade-long con- —who worked for the daily El Diario— cautionary measures but the government frontation between the administration had written a story accusing the state did not implement any safety program to of President Hugo Chávez and the pri- prosecutor’s nephew of ties to drug traf- protect Palacios. vate media has seriously restricted media fickers a few days earlier. On November The case was also marked by a series freedoms. Based on political decisions 13, 2008, the seasoned reporter was sit- of investigative failures. The autopsy rather than transparent legal procedures, ting in his car in the driveway of his home, was conducted almost three months af- government regulators have pulled the broadcast concession of the oldest television station, RCTV, and revoked the licenses of dozens of radio stations in the The emergence of censorship and self-censorship in last few years. The Venezuelan govern- the region is deeply worrisome. Fear of violence or ment, free press advocates agree, is gradually silencing opposing views in a clear government repression stifles press freedom. attempt to control the flow of information and systematically suppress dissent. Recently approved legislation has with his eight-year-old daughter in the ter Palacios had been gunned down; the provoked increased concern about back seat, when he was shot to death. A coroner never examined the body after Chávez’s efforts to censor news coverage. federal investigator assigned to the case the murder. A prosecutor in charge of In late 2010, a lame-duck National As- was soon murdered; a month later, so the case said the exhumation and au- sembly passed a reform of the 2004 Law was his successor. The killing produced a topsy were suddenly important because on Social Responsibility in Radio and chilling effect on the city’s press corps. Honduran authorities had solicited the Television that expanded broadcast regu- Criminal groups, ruthless street gangs help of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Inves- lations to the Internet. In the new provi- and impunity have also influenced the tigation. Investigators, according to the sions, messages that “incite or promote press in nearby Central America. In 2010, prosecutor, needed to show something to hatred,” “disrespect authorities,” “foment nine Honduran reporters were killed in a their U.S. counterparts. citizens’ anxiety or alter public order” wave of lethal violence. An in-depth report In nearby Guatemala, drug-related vi- or “constitute war propaganda,” will be on the murders by the Committee to Pro- olence has spiraled as gangs compete for banned. The legislation also limits online tect Journalists found a pattern of poor smuggling routes into Mexico. Mexican media content according to the time of and shoddy investigative work in most of drug cartels have been actively operat- the day, with adult content reserved for the cases, all of which remain unsolved. ing in the northern region of the country. shows after midnight. Digital media that The record series of murders occurred in Guatemalan forces tasked with fighting violate the law can be fined up to 13,000 a charged political climate as Honduran drug traffickers are out-powered. Re- bolivars (US$3,000), while service pro- society broke down after a coup ousted porters in northern areas are suppress- viders that fail to respond to government former President Manuel Zelaya in 2009. ing any coverage of crime in fear of re- inquiries could be fined up to “10 percent Government officials in current Presi- taliation. Self-censorship is so pervasive of the previous year’s gross income,” in dent Porfirio Lobo’s administration have that massive gun battles between drug addition to “72 hours of continuous sus- sought to play down the crimes and the traffickers go unreported, according to pension of services.” climate of impunity in the country. the Guatemala City press group Centro The Social Responsibility law, also The case of popular Honduran TV de Reportes Informativos sobre Guate- known as the “content law,” was approved personality Nahúm Palacios Arteaga il- mala (Cerigua). in 2004 and has been widely criticized by lustrates this pattern of crime and impu- Threats of deadly violence have also international human rights groups for its nity. Palacios, 34, the anchor for Chan- silenced numerous reporters and media broad and vaguely worded restrictions nel 5, the main broadcast station in the in Colombia. Research done by the Com- on free expression. For instance, Article

24 ReVista spring | summer 2011 under attack

29 bars television and radio stations from broadcasting messages that “pro- Beyond Intimidation mote, defend, or incite breaches of public order” or “are contrary to the security of and Exile the nation.” In order to comply with the law, broadcasters have cancelled critical The Revival of Investigative Reporting news programming. In Ecuador, official decisions to censor By Gustavo Gorriti news coverage have alarmed local free- press advocates who believe President Rafael Correa’s administration intends to target critics and control information. In- I wrote my first investigative story on the top of the enterprise—the owners terrupting news programs on private tele- a sturdy Olivetti typewriter, thoughts and managers—trickling down through vision to air official rebuttals to criticism pounding into the paper with an ir- pliable editors until it settles into fre- has become standard practice since 2010. regular staccato that would slow down quently corrupted newsrooms. The Ecuadoran government has a conten- as night approached dawn. That was As editor and publisher of Caretas, tious relationship with the private press back in early 1982. I was a reporter at Zileri stood out as a valuable exception. and has become increasingly intolerant Peru’s Caretas, a weekly newsmaga- There is no telling what an experienced, toward criticism, local journalists said. zine, already grasping the fundamental relentless editor can accomplish by Private network Teleamazonas was forced dynamics of much of Latin American pushing, spurring, cajoling, sometimes off the air for three days in late 2009 after investigative reporting: Publish, try not even praising reporters into bringing it ran a story about the potential effects of to perish. I was fortunate to work with back the best possible information. Of natural gas exploration off southern Puná a great editor—the talented and brave course, this ought to be what every edi- Island. Regulators found the network had Enrique Zileri. He was the magazine’s tor does, and yet it is a rare newsroom “incited public disorder.” hard driving director, who could in- in Latin America lucky enough to have Censorship is still far from being as spire or terrify Caretas’ eclectic group such an editor. pervasive as when it was an established of journalists with a simple, binary mode of repression by the military re- alternative: Produce a scoop or suffer Hazards of Reporting gimes that dominated the region more temporal but stinging disgrace. In covering the Shining Path’s bloody in- than thirty years ago. But in this new, In later years I would learn through surgency during the 1980’s, for instance, more democratic era, censorship and personal experiences and those of my my weekly task was straightforward: to forced self-censorship have again be- colleagues that the greatest hazard a find out and report what was happening come common for many Latin American Latin American investigative journalist in the fast growing scenarios of violence. journalists and media outlets, whether faces is an internal one. It is the censor- With the surreal expressions of the out of fear of violence or government re- ship and sabotage that emanates from Shining Path’s Cultural Revolution kind pression. This alarming pattern is clearly undermining the media’s ability to report the news freely, but most importantly, it affects the fundamental rights of Latin American citizens to freedom of expression and access to information.

Carlos Lauría is the Americas senior program coordinator of the New York- based Committee to Protect Journalists since 2002. He is responsible for moni- toring, documenting, and developing responses to press freedom violations in Latin America. As chief strategist and spokesperson for CPJ on media issues in the region, he writes regularly on press issues for media throughout Latin America and Europe.

artwork by ricardo trotti drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 25 Journalism of the Americas

of Maoism and the lethal schizophrenia of president-led coup d’état that when the theater at its best: same room, furnished the Peruvian government’s repression in dust settled left them with undisputed with a Third World bureaucrat’s notion play, reporting was admittedly arduous, control over all branches of government. of official opulence; same interlocutor: a though within the expected hazards of In the process, I was seized and “dis- usually silky Montesinos (perhaps more journalism. I found the obstacles and per- appeared” by the Army’s intelligence intimidating because of that), buying, ils in the field were nicely counterweight- service, and then I reappeared thanks to bribing, conniving with a long parade of ed by fear of failure were I ever to return their poor operational planning. Eventu- captains of industry and finance, politi- empty-handed to the newsroom. ally I found myself unemployable; even cians, judges, prosecutors and, last but Reporting was defined differently at some longtime friends were afraid of not least, media owners. other news organizations in Peru. Jour- being seen with me at the time. Facing The owners of almost all of the nation’s nalists there were expected to gather al- these pressures, I had to leave Peru some TV companies, its most important radio legations that would support their pub- months later. station, and many of Peru’s newspapers lication’s ideology or to concoct reports Soon I would find out that using jour- received editorial instructions from Mon- that were more exorcism than informa- nalism to expose the actions of Mon- tesinos. Here he is, on the tapes, telling tion. For a long time, Peru’s newspaper tesinos abroad, especially in the U.S., them what and how to report—a lesson of record almost didn’t report on the rag- was almost as difficult as it was in Peru, in disinformation. There are videos of ing internal war, as if disdainful silence though for different reasons. Editors owners being handed piles of cash, money would dissipate it into oblivion. were fine with publishing a story or an they took at times with a greed bordering Reporting on high-level corruption op-ed I wrote on many Latin American on lust. Today, a few of the less powerful was close to impossible in most of Peru’s subjects, but they refused to even con- ones are in prison; one is a fugitive, living publications. Early in my journalism ca- sider publishing investigative stories on comfortably in Switzerland with his son reer I found out why; corruption was not Montesinos or Fujimori, no matter how now in control of his TV station. Most are aberrant but systemic, with networked meticulously I had researched them. even better off than they were then. They nodes interlinked in sometimes surpris- What was solid, well-documented retain control of their media companies, ing ways. In late 1983 I wrote my first investigative journalism—that would banks and businesses, and have increased exposé on Vladimiro Montesinos, who have been seen as such under normal their large leverage over economic activ- fled the country because of the story’s circumstances—was dismissed as crusad- ity, political discourse and, to a large ex- publication. But then he came back and ing journalism or even conspiracy-theory tent, media output. piggybacked his way into power by being journalism when the subject was Mon- a secret adviser to people in power with tesinos. But that is not the point of this Presidential Corruption much greater ambitions than capabili- story. It is that as a good spy Montesinos in Panama ties. The fact that he was a natural as a documented almost everything that could I also lived through those sorts of dy- spy didn’t harm either. His path to power be of use to him later on—dirty deals, namics at work in another latitude. In was fraught with crimes but eventually transactions, betrayals. Before his time, 1996, I was hired to be the deputy direc- he found himself as the adviser in the East Germany’s Ministry for State Secu- tor of Panama’s La Prensa. My task was shadows to the insecure newly elected rity, known as the Stasi, had pioneered straightforward: to strengthen the pa- President Alberto Fujimori. overdocumentation of both surveillance per’s investigative journalism. La Prensa This was in 1990. In slightly over a and espionage. Mostly through video- founder Roberto Eisenmann and I were year, Montesinos purged and secured tape, Montesinos did the same, clearly Nieman Fellows together in 1985-’86 and control over the military, police and, with the thought that the information through the years we encouraged each chiefly, the intelligence services. He also would be perpetually under his control. other as we confronted autocrats in our developed a close relationship with the In that presumption, he was wrong. respective countries, he with Noriega, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) then me with Fujimori and Montesinos. that was to last through the decade, What the Videos Revealed In structuring the ownership of La even as he assumed informal control of When the Fujimori regime crumbled in Prensa, Eisenmann was visionary. Given the primary activity of organized crime 2000, a significant though incomplete set the dictatorship in place and knowing in Peru—drug trafficking. (This was not of Montesinos’s tapes was seized by the that any major investor would have his the only such case in Latin America of new regime. This prompted investigations arm twisted in no time by government these overlapping connections—Pana- by a number of official anticorruption en- officials, La Prensa spread its ownership ma’s Manuel Antonio Noriega comes to tities whose zeal would soon ebb. But the widely. No person could own more than mind—but Montesinos was by far the dozens of videotapes remained a valuable one percent of the newspaper’s shares. smarter crook.) In less than two years contribution of Montesinos to the field of That way, its board and its editors were he and Fujimori carried out an internal corruption studies. They were minimalist able to do independent journalism. Con-

26 ReVista spring | summer 2011 journalists under attack

fronting first Omar Torrijos and then crucial to do these investigations. But sustainable impact on corruption. the far more vicious Noriega, La Prensa after nearly five years he decided to step Since this past February I have been held strongly to its values, paid a painful down. At that point, Ricardo Alberto at IDL-Reporteros (reporteros.pe), a price in that struggle, and after Noriega’s Arias, now no longer foreign minister, led small, web-based, nonprofit investigative downfall reopened with great prestige, a laborious takeover drive to win enough publication in Peru that I co-founded soon becoming profitable and the news- shareholders’ votes to take control of the and direct. The equivalent to our pub- paper of record in Panama. paper. He took over La Prensa in 2001. lisher is Peru’s foremost human rights This was a newspaper that any re- I had left Panama a few months before organization, IDL (Instituto de Defensa porter would be proud to work for, as I and returned to Peru, but excellent jour- Legal). Our financial support is from was. I put myself energetically to the task nalists who had worked with me were the Open Society Institute, which is the of doing investigative reporting—with no exiled to minor positions at the paper as principal funder for an expanding crop better place to start than with the coun- Arias tried and for a time succeeded in of Latin American nonprofit investiga- try’s financial sector. The first investiga- neutralizing its investigative power. tive journalism units. We are part of a tion I led was on the fraudulent collapse What the crooks couldn’t do from out- Latin American—and a global—effort to of a bank. As long as those brought into side, they were now able to do from with- stem and reverse the decay of investiga- the limelight were foreigners or relative in. The situation had a positive turn of tive journalism. unknowns, there wasn’t a problem. But events, which to this day holds. Fernando Ours is a pioneering effort striving to in time (as would be the case in all other Berguido, a 2011 Nieman Fellow, became find a sustainable model while trying to do major investigations) the corrupt bank- La Prensa’s publisher in 2004—and for and publish the best possible investigative ers led to an important Colombian drug two years also its editor—and put it back journalism. It is too early to know which trafficker, then to people with high in- on track. A top Panamanian investiga- of the trails we are blazing will become fluence in Panama’s regime, then to the tive journalist, Rolando Rodríguez, was well-traveled roads and which might be president’s son-in-law. appointed associate director, and he abandoned. Digital media present us with President Ernesto Pérez Balladares steered La Prensa into uncovering cases exhilarating possibilities for ushering in a decided to expel me from Panama. I de- of corruption, old and new. He eventually new era of significant investigative jour- cided to resist and a standoff ensued for reported on the house arrest, however nalism. But whether a thoroughly investi- several months. The paper’s board, es- brief, of Pérez Balladares as part of the gated exposé that makes it harder for pow- pecially its president, Juan Arias, firmly prosecution for past, let’s say, misdeeds. erful crooks to steal, extort or intimidate supported me, which made a huge difference. But support for me was far from unanimous at the newspaper. One of La Prensa’s founders, Ricardo Alberto Arias, What was solid, well-documented investigative was at the time Panama’s foreign minis- journalism was dismissed as crusading journalism or ter, and he sided strongly with the president. At one point in the midst of swiftly even conspiracy theory journalism. aborted direct talks, he told me that he believed that only a person with at least three generations of ancestors buried in The Digital Path comes from a typewriter or is produced Panama’s soil should be allowed to do in- Panama’s La Prensa and Zileri’s Caretas on a digital tablet, its existence—then and vestigative reporting in the country. were exceptional places where investiga- now—represents success. In the end I was able to stay. I contin- tive journalism was encouraged and de- ued my work there for five years, expos- fended, though both had to pay a price Gustavo Gorriti, a 1986 Nieman Fellow ing many more cases of corruption, some for doing it. All over Latin America, the at Harvard, is the founder and director implicating President Pérez Balladares. number of newspapers, magazines and of IDL-Reporteros, a digital, nonprofit As a result of one story, he was stripped electronic media that have an uncom- investigative publication in Peru. Last of his U.S. visa. Afterwards, Panama’s at- promising approach to investigate high- year the Ibero-American New Journal- torney general made a point by indicting level corruption is exceedingly small. It is ism Foundation (FNPI) honored him and suing me and the other members noteworthy, therefore, how many impor- with its CEMIX+FNPI New Journalism of the investigative team, just as he had tant investigative stories have been pub- Prize in recognition of his outstanding after the publication of other significant lished in Latin America since the 1980s. career as an investigative journalist. exposés. Yet these represent just a fraction of what The support I received from Juan is needed if journalists, as the public’s A version of this article appeared in the Arias, La Prensa’s board president, was watchdogs, are to have a substantial and March 2011 Nieman Reports.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 27 Journalism of the Americas

The Law as Censor Freedom of Press in Ecuador

By Mónica Almeida

I was headed somewhere in a taxi with my But now, the situation has become a struggle against a leader who has more 10-year-old daughter Sasha. It was a Sat- more serious than insults and four judi- than 65% popular support after four urday afternoon in September 2009, and cial processes against a newspaper and years in power. In effect, journalists pro- we had just returned to Quito after a year three media workers. A Communica- vide some of the few voices critical of the at Harvard with a Nieman Fellowship. tions Law, which would seriously restrict government. Columnists are often more The taxi driver was listening to a speech press freedom, is under consideration by inclined towards the opposition. by Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa. the parliament. And because this bill is The government blames journalists He didn’t have much choice of program- taking too long to be approved, Correa for everything bad that has happened in ming—most radio stations were in the wants the people to approve a regulatory the country like the bank crisis of 1999 so-called enlace, universal broadcasting. council to restrict freedom of speech. and lately the rise of crime. It is a stig- Correa’s two-hour radio address The disagreement between President matization that creates an inhospitable about his weekly accomplishments was Correa and journalists (and their media) environment in which to work, especially rebroadcast on all the public media and rests in this University of Illinois econo- since—just as in any other profession— most radio stations. Sasha and I got into mist’s incapacity to understand that we we can make mistakes. the taxi precisely at the moment when journalists carry out the role of watch- Attacks can arise even from little mis- the segment “Freedom of Expression” dogs and hold the powers-that-be ac- takes—like an error or a perceived error was starting. Correa began to insult Dia- countable to their citizens. in a headline. Sometimes I’ve even had to rio El Universo, the daily ‘on the record’ of Ecuador and where I have worked for the past 13 years. “Corrupt, medio- cre, and unpatriotic, ” were some of the Insults and intimidation are all too common in adjectives the president used that day. Ecuador. In February, President Rafael Correa called For most Ecuadorans this was nothing of the ordinary. For the last three years, the press “hitmen with pens.” the president had been engaging in these kinds of attacks against journalists. But my daughter, who was listening Convinced that he is the anointed explain to someone I’ve just met that a to these broadcasts for the first time, got person designated to carry out one of the mistake in a headline should not be con- scared. She started to barrage me with most radical transformations of Ecuador, sidered on the same level of “abuse” as questions. What was happening? Why in great part due to the high prices for oil stealing public funds because there is a was the president calling her mommy and his great capacity for work, as well as big difference between being a journalist “corrupt”? Thankfully, we arrived at our his intelligence, Correa does not tolerate and being a state official. destination. I waited until Sasha and I criticism. In this smear campaign against jour- were alone to explain that the insults He would prefer to have the media nalists and media that also includes were just talk and not important at all. as an echo chamber that praises his ac- mandatory interruptions of journalis- I tried to explain to her how things had complishments, that is, publishes pure tic programs on television to broadcast changed in Ecuador in the year that we propaganda. Or one that publishes the messages against their hosts, two media lived in Cambridge. corrupt practices of everybody else but workers have been accused of terrorism. In times of “Revolución Ciudadana,”— his officials or his party’s allies. A word that is becoming very convenient the so-called citizens’ revolution—jour- Ecuador presents a panorama in to the government and the judges who nalists have become a primary target for which the credibility of political parties is inspired themselves in Correa’s words. insults from President Correa, who con- around 26%; opposition parties are still The first is Juan Alcívar, from La siders the media he does not control as trying to find a way to renew themselves Hora newspaper, accused of throwing his primary political opposition. (or at least to cover their backs) to wage a tear gas bomb during Correa’s visit to

28 ReVista spring | summer 2011 artwork by ricardo trotti drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 29 Journalism of the Americas

La Concordia. The second is the Shuar These proposed changes include a new Indian José Acacho, from the communi- regulation through which private com- tarian radio La Voz de Arutam (Voice of munications firms (not just the media), Arutam), who is also a leader of the Sh- their directors and principal stockholders uar Federation. This radio broadcasted could not hold any shares in companies an uprising against the government on outside the communications field. September 30, 2009, in the Amazonia. And the second would create a regula- Needless to say the government also tory council that would establish content denies information and refuses to grant norms for the printed and broadcast me- interview requests to certain media. And dia but would also establish criteria for just in 2010, the state denied the renova- subsequent imposition of liability. tion of broadcast licenses for two radios. In other words, a simple council (some In addition, Correa has created a propa- nine or eleven people) will have the pow- ganda machine for the achievements of er not only to control media content but the government. On the one hand, Cor- to judge journalists. rea maintains or controls a group of pub- In this manner, “the citizens’ revolu- lic media (19, including six state-run and tion” appeals to the supreme will of the another 13 confiscated from bank stock- people to tighten the screws to limit free- holders—the latter which were supposed doms for all Ecuadorans. If this rule is to be sold two years ago). approved, the result will be self-imposed And on the other, official advertising The key points of the bill? To create censorship. in the media has exploded in the last four a “communication council” controlled And where are the journalists in the years to count for more than US$190 by the government that could shut down middle of all this? We are still playing in million between 2007 and 2010. This media and forbid people without a uni- a democratic field; Ecuador doesn’t have number is around 0.31% of our Gross versity degree in Social Communication a tradition of persecuted or disappeared Domestic Product—or a little bit less to work in the media. journalists. But this is a difficult moment for those who feel a passion for journalism. We have the challenge to do our best to keep our audiences informed and not Those of us who feel a passion for journalism need to let our personal feelings be expressed to have the courage to practice our profession with in our stories. Maybe I’m naive but I still believe that we have our words and our honesty and accuracy. stories to counteract this campaign. We have to get our voices heard outside the country to explain that Ecuador that the 2011 budget of the Ministry of In spite of all the officialist lobbying, is not Venezuela—but freedom of speech Agriculture. even the majority party in parliament, is in danger here. We need to have the This amount does not take into ac- Alianza PAIS, has shown itself reluctant courage to practice our profession with count the production of these commer- to sign a blank check and just approve the honesty and accuracy. cials, the billboards, communications ad- proposed Communications Law that the And, most important of all, we have vising and information fairs. Just during executive branch wants. Even the Inter- to feel the dignity of our profession. Last the World Cup, the government spent American Commission of Human Rights Sunday, my husband told a friend, who $900,000 in transmissions accusing the has asked the Assembly not to restrict used to work for this government, “I’m media of robbery, lies and even murder. the freedom of speech in Ecuador. proudly married to a ‘corrupt’ journalist.” As one can suppose, official advertis- As a way to ‘get it done,’ President Cor- And whether the government calls me— ing is sometimes used to reward some rea included two proposals related to the and all watchdog journalists—”corrupt,” type of ‘loyalties’. media in a referendum to “amend” the I’m proud to be a journalist, defending The new Constitution gave another Constitution, which is only 28 months citizens’ rights in Ecuador. weapon to the government, a dangerous old and which was drawn up by the of- one. It is mandatory for the Congress to ficialist majority. In fact, he proposes to Mónica Almeida is the Quito editor of approve a Communications Law and the change the Constitution although the Guayaquil-headquartered El Universo. country has been discussing a number of executive power cannot legally do this She was a 2009 Nieman Fellow at singular norms about the press. without a Constitutional Assembly. Harvard.

30 ReVista spring | summer 2011 artwork by ricardo trotti section header

new voices

A new wave of independent, forward-thinking and critical journalism is spreading throughout the continent. Here are some examples of these new voices, ranging from investigative journalism websites to new dailies and business models.

n Journalism in Paraguay 32 n Why I Created a New Newspaper in Bolivia 34 n Citizen Media 36 n La Silla Vacía 39 n El Faro 41 n Investigative Journalism 43

artistphoto bycredit jess name fernande and urlz; www.photoblog.com/jesstyle drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 31 Journalism of the Americas journalists under attack

Journalism in Paraguay

Between Silent Tradition and Noisy Democracy By Benjamin Fernandez Bogado

New technologies have started to play an political leader, one who also wrote the cratic discussion without information or important role in building a more par- first Paraguayan constitution which knowledge. At present, democratic daily ticipatory civic society in Paraguay. The states that nobody may own a printing conversations in the media deal with ir- Internet reached here in 1997, but even company without first receiving permis- relevant issues due to the low capacity to now only one in ten Paraguayans has ac- sion from the “Supreme Government.” understand complex issues. cess. The number of users is, however, Free speech and freedom of the press The level of illiteracy is still high. The increasing among the young. Some civic evolved slowly throughout Paraguayan government speaks of a level of about programs are pushing for more access to history. During the last two decades 10%, but in reality it is over 45%, ac- the Internet and teaching how to use it. (1989-2009) some educated people cording to former Minister of Educa- For example, Fundación Libre with its linked democracy with making these two tion Horacio Galeano Perrone, whom CETICOM (Centro Tecnológico de Infor- important human rights key elements in I interviewed on Radio Libre recently. mación y Communicación) offers courses building a political process that would This number of illiterates makes it dif- on how to develop media on the Internet. give citizens full access to participation. ficult to enjoy freedom of speech and of Since its first efforts, many people have Yet Paraguay, according to the Chilean the press. started their own blogs and spread the pollsters’ Latinobarómetro, is one of the Newspaper circulation is very low idea of the importance of new technolo- Latin American countries least enthusi- for a country with more than six million gies to advance freedom of the press and astic about democracy. Almost half of all people. Fewer than 130,000 copies are free speech. Much remains to be done in Paraguayans are ready to give up some distributed from the capital city, Asun- this field, which could be very important freedoms in exchange for better econom- ción. ABC Color, the most popular news- in encouraging a sense of power to pub- ic and social conditions. paper, sells 20,000 copies daily, whereas lish ideas without fear of censorship or in 1984, before it was closed down for five control. EDUCATION years by the Stroessner regime, sales had Fear has played an important role Freedoms of press and speech are not reached 80,000. This large fall in circu- throughout Paraguayan history, and, as appreciated in a country in which in- lation at a time of increased population is a consequence, freedom is a ambiguous vestment in education during the long proof of disenchantment with the press. word here. It depends on who defines it, dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroess- Internet connectivity in Paraguay is still how it is defined and in what context. ner (1954-1989) was 1% of the Gross Na- very low: 15% of the population has ac- For instance, the so-called “father of tional Product (GNP). In the subsequent cess, but the plan is to increase it in the journalism,” Carlos Antonio López, the democratic period, education investment coming years. Many people see the press Paraguayan leader who replaced long- has reached just 2.8% of GNP, far lower as more interested in confrontation and term dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de than in Uruguay, Costa Rica and Chile, dispute with the political establishment Francia, was also editor of El Paraguayo where people view democracy enthusi- than in helping the people participate in Independiente, the country’s first news- astically as a means of building a strong the democratic process with knowledge paper, during his period in office. There state based upon the rule of law. There and information. is clearly a conflict of interest between is a clear link between education, free Some recent polls also show that being the editor of the country’s only speech and freedom of the press. It is even though people are disenchanted newspaper and being the non-elected impossible to participate in the demo- with the executive, legislative and judi-

32 ReVista spring | summer 2011 photos by jess fernandez; www.photoblog.com/jesstyle From left to right: newspapers roll off a traditional printing press; scenes of people reading and selling newspapers in Paraguay.

cial institutions of democracy, they still rather than the civil code in libel cases. Another important but sensitive ele- trust the media and the Catholic Church. This provision was used by some politi- ment is that two languages are present in Nevertheless, there has been a big drop cal figures against journalists who dared Paraguay. People speak Guaraní (an in- in that trust compared to just after the to publish articles on corruption. Judicial digenous language) and Spanish. About overthrow of Stroessner in 1989, when decisions show that in some cases judges 60% of the population speaks only Guar- people held journalists and the media in consider the interests of politicians to aní, whereas Spanish is the language of high esteem. be more important than the interests of commerce and politics. This situation Lack of formal education, untrust- individuals, specifically where journal- restricts fluency in the expression of worthy media and the very small distri- ists decided to publish articles covering ideas. There is a long way to go to make bution of newspapers and books are key corruption, which is still a big problem Paraguay a fully bilingual country where factors in understanding why free speech in Paraguay. Annual reviews by Trans- people can comfortably express ideas in and freedom of the press did not play a parency International still list Paraguay both languages. The state is beginning more important role in creating enthu- as one of the most corrupt countries to teach Guaraní to some and Spanish as siasm for democracy. The 1992 Consti- in Latin America. Impunity is high in a second language to others, but the re- tution says that freedoms of press and Paraguay, where people who commit a sults after almost 20 years of implemen- speech are to be enjoyed with “responsi- crime have a 99% possibility of not be- tation are poor because of a shortage of bility, equity and veracity.” From a legal ing prosecuted, fined or sent to prison. teachers with a good command of both point of view, the current Paraguayan This situation makes journalists despair Guaraní and Spanish. constitution is one of the most advanced of reporting cases of corruption, be- Freedom of speech and of the press in the region in terms of protecting free- cause they see their work as useless and require the encouragement of reading in doms of speech and press and authoriz- without any support from the judiciary. order to give people the vocabulary and ing public access to information. Articles As many people have observed: “Under the ideas necessary to participate in con- 24 to 29 repeat the importance of the democracy we can say whatever we like, versation and discussion. In neighboring freedom of expression and the freedom but nothing happens when we complain. Argentina, the former rector of the Uni- of the press in strengthening democracy With democracy we can talk, but we can- versidad de Buenos Aires, Guillermo Jai- and human values. Indeed, the Paraguay- not afford to eat.” me Etcheverry, wrote in his book La Tra- an constitution is often used as a model gedia Educativa that a young student in in Latin America. It protects the inter- FOCUS ON NEW TECHNOLOGIES Buenos Aires uses fewer than 300 words ests of citizens as well as those of journal- New technologies are an opportunity, but to communicate daily, whereas the Span- ists, photographers and media owners. It they also present a series of challenges in ish language has more than 100,000 clearly forbids governments from closing Paraguay. words. If this is the situation in Buenos newspapers and magazines and shutting A major social evolution took place fol- Aires, one can only imagine how many down radio or television stations because lowing the arrival of democracy in 1989. words are used in Paraguay. they disturb the political establishment. Although people are no longer afraid of Paraguayans are not able and free to There are also some important ad- expressing ideas, lack of education makes participate because they are ashamed vances in the criminal code, even though it very difficult for them to hold serious to express their ideas as they are not one can be sued under the criminal code discussions on diverse issues. trained to do so. It is rare to find Para-

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 33 Journalism of the Americas

guayan families where members express their ideas freely over lunch Why I Created a New or dinner. The authoritarian tradition permeated every part of society, Newspaper in Bolivia making silence and self-restriction part of the national culture. Paraguay Paper reels, printing presses…and iPads can be defined in many ways as a silent society where social control still by Raúl Peñaranda U. inhibits people who want to express their own ideas in school or social gatherings—and this attitude perme- ates both the press and the public’s During my Nieman year at Harvard, I care- this newspaper had to follow a short- and perception of the press. fully kept my eye on the newspaper crisis. mid-range plan through which we could In the United States, ever since the mid- gradually leave print behind and lead THE ROLE OF EDUCATION dle of the last decade, journalists have ourselves into the digital world. To conclude, it is not sufficient to been fired; the number of pages in print At that time, my obsession was the merely enshrine freedoms of speech media has drastically dropped, reporters’ same as throughout my career—how to and press in the Constitution. We salaries have shrunk, and advertising has better inform the public. This means Paraguayans need to understand considerably diminished. All this, I ob- pointing out the nuances in the news, that it is necessary to build a social served, was fundamentally due to com- digging deeper into the significance of consensus on the importance of both petition from the Internet. The public events, offering independent opinions, freedoms in a country which suffered informs itself for free instead of paying and providing the context for news. In for so long from censorship, fear and for newspapers and magazines. other words, I have always wanted to the persecution of ideas. It is neces- I returned to Bolivia in mid-2008 with present the news in a deeply pluralistic sary to reduce inequality in education the idea that the future of journalism (the and independent manner. and improve access to new technolo- present?) was based on the Internet and I believed that a newspaper of this gies, but at the same time it is impor- that printed media were destined to be a type was necessary in Bolivia. A land- tant to promote reading, publications rarity that only the rich could afford. And locked country of ten million inhabitants and access to public libraries in order what did I do a short time after arriving in the heart of South America, Bolivia to give people the tools to enjoy these home? I helped to start up a traditional is experiencing a period of deep trans- freedoms. newspaper. With reels of paper, a print- formation. President Evo Morales, who Paraguay has experienced a long ing press and everything else print me- is in his sixth year of office, has taken a tradition of silence in its two hundred dia implies and even with a name rooted series of measures in favor of indigenous years of independence. Presently, the in traditional print media: Página Siete sectors—which make up more than half country is enjoying more than twenty (Page Seven). of the population. This policy made him years of democracy. However, the im- I know that this assessment seems popular with that majority, but his ag- pact of past censorship upon the pop- self-contradictory, but it is not entirely gressive rhetoric against the opposition ulation is clear. Education is needed irrational. First of all, I have twenty years and the business community has aggra- to promote both democracy and the of experience in print media, so it feels vated political polarization. His domes- overall understanding of freedom. normal to carry on this way. Second, ac- tic outlook reflects itself abroad: he has cess to the Internet is low in Latin Amer- expelled the U.S. ambassador and main- Benjamin Fernández Bogado, ica and particularly in Bolivia, which tains a strong political and economic al- author, speaker, broadcaster, and means that the newspaper crisis is less liance with Venezuelan President Hugo university lecturer, is founder and imminent. Third, newspapers in Bolivia Chávez. director of Radio Libre and Funda- have always operated in an environment The new polarization in Bolivia called cion Libre. His most recent books of economic restrictions, compared to for objective, independent observation of include A Sacudirse! and ¿Y Ahora their North American counterparts, so events. Qué? He was a 2000 Nieman Fellow they operate more efficiently. Fourth, I We have more than managed to ac- and a 2008 Visiting Fellow at the genuinely believed the La Paz market had complish our goals on the editorial side David Rockefeller Center for Latin space for another newspaper because of of Página Siete. We have built up a staff American Studies. His website is the relative lack of credibility of the lead- of 30 reporters that manage to get daily www.benjaminfernandezbogado. ing newspaper here, La Razón. Fifth and scoops, as well as participate in long- wordpress.com most important, because I was sure that term investigative projects. Every week,

34 ReVista spring | summer 2011 new voices

we publish an in-depth interview with would actually be the banks that sold the within three years, a significant public figure. Many - ofBo 3-G iPads (the most expensive version, two thirds of our livia’s most important intellectuals write with a cost of around $800 in the U.S., readers will follow for the paper—ranging from strong Evo but that had excellent connectivity in the us on new technology supporters to opposition figures to indig- main Bolivian cities). The iPad could be and the rest on paper. enous activists and even a radical lesbian paid off over a three-year period, and in- The distribution of feminist. Our goal is to cultivate the ex- terested buyers could obtain a consumer iPads began slowly in pression of different voices and open dia- loan. Almost half a million people in the January 2011. At that logue in a polarized society, all the while country receive their pay through direct time, Página Siete was emphasizing robust reporting and verifi- deposit; all of them would become eli- almost a year old and cation of facts. gible clients. Another interesting fact is had already become the second most im- Our objectives were clear, as was the that in Bolivia there are almost 200,000 portant newspaper in La Paz, in terms of socio-political stage on which we were smartphone users, that is, a perfect niche sales as well as influence. The Sunday cir- choosing to launch our newspaper. But market for our idea. The offer would be culation was about 10,000 copies, about first we needed to secure a business mod- the following: the consumer, through a third of that of the leading newspaper. el that would sustain us economically. the bank, would pay $140 down and I am confident that this model of dis- Raúl Garáfulic, the president of the then subscribe to the iPad version of the tribution will make Página Siete the most company, and I have always been in newspaper for $35 monthly. That is, the read newspaper in the country and the agreement about the editorial goals of reader would be subscribing to our news- most financially solid. I also believe that our new project, but we debated a lot paper for three years and receive a free this model is an idea that other newspa- about the crisis in the print media. We iPad. Or, another way of looking at it, pers—here and abroad—can use. recognized that our Internet version the reader would be buying an iPad with In the meantime, whether on paper would have to be vigorous and versatile. three-years’ credit… and receive a free or iPad, many of the goals we had set out We understood that we would need to subscription to our newspaper. The new when we inaugurated the newspaper use the new technologies right from the subscriber, on turning on the iPad, has have been adequately fulfilled. We have start of our project. Around that time, our newspaper as a homepage. managed to keep our editorial pages in mid-2009, the sales of the iPad began This initiative is based on the fol- open to diverse viewpoints. Our news to take off around the world and major lowing criteria: first, in Bolivia, access section hosts scoops, as well as interest- newspapers began to look at this novelty to credit is relatively difficult; thus, en- ing features and investigative reporting. as a lifeline. abling the reader to buy the iPad on Several of our stories and investigations With all this in mind, we did not know credit is an interesting offer; second, the have had important repercussions. We exactly how we would create a newspa- middle and upper classes—and particu- discovered, for example, that a Peruvian per business which could both reflect the larly the lower-middle class— are greatly female prisoner had been held 60 days Bolivian reality and be viable and self- interested in gaining access to new tech- chained to the bed in her cell as punish- sustainable. The more we talked about nologies. Parents see the computer and ment in a La Paz jail. The publication iPads and new technologies, the more we Internet as a way to better the quality of this story forced prison authorities seemed to lose the way to finance our op- of education for their children and help to come up with new rules for prisoner erations. It is well-known that with very their future careers at universities or the treatment, and the officers and authori- few exceptions, most media are operat- work world. In particular, the iPad, with ties responsible were fired. The Defen- ing at a loss on the Internet. Not even the its abundance of neat applications, is a soría del Pueblo—a state human rights New York Times, with 150 million yearly device longed for by millions of people in advocacy agency—drew up a plan for hits, manages to make a profit on the the world and obviously also in Bolivia. the defense of human rights in the pris- web. How could a modest newspaper in The idea is economically viable. It has ons. This is what newspapers are for! South America’s poorest country do so? tremendous potential, will exponentially Then it occurred to Garáfulic that increase the number of our readers, and Raúl Peñaranda is a journalist who was rather than thinking about how to fi- will help to establish a different busi- a 2008 Nieman Fellow at Harvard. Edi- nance an iPad application for the news- ness model in an industry that has not tor-in-chief of Página Siete in Bolivia, he paper, we might look into financing and changed much since the 18th century. has worked as a correspondent for AP and distributing the iPads themselves. We en- Página Siete hopes to sell, progressively, ANSA. He founded the Bolivian weeklies tered into long negotiations with Apple up to 10,000 iPads yearly. That is to say, Nueva Economía and La Época, both of for the rights to become an official dis- we hope shortly to be the newspaper with which are still in existence. He was man- tributor of the tablets. At the same time, the greatest circulation in the country. aging editor of Última Hora and edito- we pitched the idea to local banks. It We calculate, if everything goes well, that rial page editor of La Razón.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 35 Journalism of the Americas

Citizen Media

Mobile Phone Democracy By Kara Andrade

In October of 2009, my husband and I drove tion from their mobile phones to a web- We wanted to share mundane events like back down to Guatemala, the country of site. With all my community organizing, the patron saint festivals, las ferias, the my birth, 3,118.5 miles, 53 hrs 1 minute of nonprofit and journalism background, I processions, and to find out news about driving according to BING maps, all the was going down to listen, to learn and to catastrophes. Cheap, easy communica- way from California. While I’d made sim- orchestrate an online participatory space tion was essential for those living within ilar drives with my mother, this time we for civic issues in Guatemala. the country and those trying to maintain weren’t headed down to bring back some I already knew that one of Guatema- a transnational connectedness. family member or to be at the mercy of la’s biggest problems was internal com- It is also important to address com- U.S. immigration officials to determine munication (the reason why someone in munication and access when looking at our legal status in the United States. This Puerto Barrios has no clue what is hap- the rise of citizen journalism, participa- time we weren’t leaving because we were pening in San Marcos), the lack of which tory media and citizen media—infor- sick of being treated like mojados and is then exacerbated outside the country. mation produced by people who are not maybe we just wouldn’t come back. Communication was prohibitively ex- professional journalists or reporters. Af- This time I was driving down to Gua- pensive so people often could not obtain fordability and ubiquitous access such as temala as a Fulbright scholar, on a grant information outside their municipali- Internet cafes, Telecenters and mobile awarded by the U.S. State Department, ties. They often turned, as they do now, phones democratize information. For making me a diplomatic representative to community radio stations, many of much of the time Guatemala and the rest of the United States (the irony doesn’t es- them deemed pirate stations by the gov- of Central America weren’t part of the in- cape me). My Fulbright project was to re- ernment. My family in the United States, formation revolution. search online citizen media and to create myself included, wanted to know what a collaborative citizen journalism web- was happening in Bananera, in Chiquim- Neto exhibits his iPhone with the backdrop site for Guatemalans to share informa- ula, in Puerto Barrios, in Guatemala City. of Antigua, Guatemala.

36 ReVista spring | summer 2011 photo by kara andrade new voices

But communication has changed in tive actions on Twitter and Facebook like At that moment I imagined what news Central America. Guatemala’s evolving the protests in Guatemala City asking would look like if everyone who had a mobile sector, representative of the re- President Colom to step down because of mobile phone or at least access to one, gion, shows how this technology can of- Rodrigo Rosenberg’s YouTube video al- could send, share, distribute and refer unprecedented participation in both legations. There are Twitter hashtags to port events they witnessed via a mobile local and global civic conversations and follow impunity efforts, national emer- phone to a website and also receive that actions. It is presenting an opportunity gencies, traffic, weather, tax season. information. I soon realized that long for nation-building (however nascent) In many developing and emerging after the asphalt and pavement ends, and democratization that neither the markets with a lack of infrastructure and the mobile phone networks in Guate- Guatemalan government nor U.S. and investment in traditional communica- mala extend deep into the mountains, European foreign policy have been able tion networks such as landlines and oth- with 99.7 percent penetration of mobile to do. er cable-dependent communication, the service in a country with an estimated It became obvious things had changed telecom sector leapfrogs into the mobile population of more than 14 million in when Twitter user Jeanfer was arrested phone arena. Investors, government and 2009, according to the World Bank De- by Guatemalan authorities on the charg- consumers shift quickly toward mobile velopment Indicators. In 2007, the Su- es of “intent to incite financial panic” for communication because of convenience, perintendencia de Telecomunicaciones sending out this tweet: “Primera acción affordability, and accessibility. The table (SIT) registered 4.7 million more mo- real, ‘sacar el pisto de Banrural’ y que- on the following page illustrates the sur- bile users, indicating that 9 out of every brar el banco de los corruptos.” “First real prisingly large penetration rate and the 10 Guatemalans own or have access to action, ‘to take the money out of Ban- very impressive annual growth rate in a mobile phone. Much to the surprise rural’ and break the bank of the corrupt.” Central American countries. of many of its Central American neigh- He was arrested and spent the night in This development means that the new bors, Guatemala’s telecom sector is one jail, whereupon the Twitter community technology is received with much more of the top four in Latin America, accord- raised funds to help him pay for a lawyer. ease than in already existing well-es- ing to Fundación2020 consultant Mario In the same month that many human tablished communication markets. This Marroquín Rivera. This figure contrasts rights and mining activists had received process has been helped quite a bit by the with high-speed Internet access at only death threats via SMS (the acronym for surrounding countries of Brazil, Venezu- 7.7 percent and highly concentrated in Short Message Service or “text messages,” ela and Mexico, as seen in the table on large urban areas. prominent lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, the following page. In 2001, Appalachian State Universi- allegedly fearing he would be killed, re- I got a glimpse of how much Guate- ty anthropologist Tim Smith traveled to corded a YouTube video blaming Presi- mala’s telecommunications had changed Guatemala to research social movements dent Colom and his wife for such a deed. in 2006 on a reporting assignment on and democracy among indigenous com- The video was released the same week- deforestation in Petén. On the top of an munities. “I had Mayas asking for my end Rosenberg’s body was found shot in excavated Mayan pyramid called El Ti- cellphone number and pulling out their Guatemala City’s wealthy Zone 10. gre, one of three pyramids in a remote flip Motorola when in 1997 and 1998 I These examples show how the priva- archaeological site deep in the Guate- had to get on a bus and show up to their tization of telecommunications creates a malan jungle of Mirador Basin, I rested houses and that was the way to get in competitive market for citizens to express my legs weary from hiking 27 miles in 90 contact with anyone,” said Smith, who is themselves, to communicate and to ac- degree heat. I was barely able to raise my currently traveling in Guatemala study- cess much needed information. In many head enough to see someone holding up ing post-war Maya activism and electoral ways it’s an awakening in Guatemala, to a mobile phone. Josué Guzmán was one politics. Smith believes all this texting, the first “brick” or foundation of a demo- of the Guatemalan archaeologists I was blogging, and buying of smartphones cratic society, of the right to express one’s accompanying into this ancient Mayan will lead to big changes. opinion publicly and for that opinion to city and he was sending a text message to “Part of me wants to say something play a role in one’s own community and his girlfriend. along the lines of the use of mobile in self-governance. “In Guatemala we’re very connected,” phones and now online networking sites A social fabric or an imagined social he told me. That’s when I started to be- for democratic participation and mobili- community is being spun from pixels— lieve that mobile phones and the devel- zation in this election coming up is prob- thousands of people who are creating oped telecommunications industry in ably akin to the rise of print capitalism in their own Wordpress.com or Blogger. Guatemala were one of the reasons for Latin America,” he observed. com, creating civic group Facebook Fan this interconnectedness. It gave me faith Smith believes Guatemala should be pages like Movimiento Cívico Nacional in mobile technology as a tool for jour- seen as a model in the use of this tech- and Voces de Cambio, organizing collec- nalism and democratic development. nology in the upcoming election in Au-

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 37 Journalism of the Americas

Mobile penetration and annual growth in Central American countries— Latin America’s fixed line telephones and mobile telephone subscriptions: September 2007 2009 Country Penetration Annual Growth Belize 53.3% 14% Costa Rica 31.9% 1% El Salvador 65.8% 51% Guatemala 61.4% 47% Honduras 46.3% 80% Nicaragua 40.2% 42% Panama 72.4% 29%

Source: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/2008-Latin-America-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broad- Sources: Euromonitor International from International Telecommunications Union/World Bank/ band-in-Central-America.html trade sources/national statistics gust 2011—in particular the use of these ting the mobile phone the radio reporter he stated in his report on “The Evolving tools by ordinary citizens who are using had called on to the microphone that was Internet: Driving Forces, Uncertain- the Internet and smartphones and blog- connected to the radio transmitter and ties and Four Scenarios to 2025” at UC ging to get vital information out. “Mayas the message was broadcast live. It was Berkeley’s School of Information in 2010. are sitting in Mayan-owned and oper- their version of the “one to many” model, “That future is already here, maybe un- ated Internet cafes blogging in Maya and and their mobile phones were the inter- evenly distributed, but here.” texting; it was unimaginable ten years mediaries making that possible. The numbers above clearly show that ago! It has the potential to shake up the Some municipalities such as Maza- penetration and growth are rising in election and not lead us to another 1999 tengo and Chinaulta use Twitter to deliv- Central America, and are making some result.” Mobile phones lessen the urban- er local news and events. Guatemala City people in Latin America, like Mexican rural dichotomy, allowing communities sends out traffic alerts throughout the businessman and media mogul Car- to organize themselves. day to Twitter and users also contribute los Slim, extremely wealthy. The region News organizations such as Emisoras news about protests, blockades and con- welcomes information services that are Unidas, Radio Sonora and El Periódico struction on the roads. Mobile phones transformative because they provide a provide breaking news via text or SMS also provided a trail during CICIG’s in- quantum leap for disadvantaged individ- alerts and ask listeners to contribute vestigative work in tracking the truth uals, enabling them to participate in gov- news, comments and traffic reports that about the murder, later uncovered as a ernance, to gain an economic advantage, are often read out on-air. During a ma- plotted suicide, of Rodrigo Rosenberg. to transmit culture, to create literacy and jor four-hour electrical blackout that af- Twitter in Guatemala only works via to make the unattainable, attainable. fected 17 departments in October 2009, online access or other enabling applica- people texted in their messages to radio tions. As more smartphones are sold —in- Kara Andrade is an Ashoka fellow stations that were reading them out loud cluding the recently introduced Android- working in Central America. Previ- while listeners tuned in via their $10 mo- powered models—more people are able ously she was funded by the U.S. State bile phones bought at the local market. to browse and use mobile phones beyond Department to implement a mobile- For the National Movement of Radio just telephony. For example, anyone can based citizen journalism website called Stations—representing 20 of the 22 de- buy a mobile phone in Guatemala with- HablaGuate. She was the community partments and 168 radio stations—mo- out a plan, deposit or credit, pre-pay saldo organizer for Spot.Us, an open source bile phones are vital tools for airing lo- or funds, and sign up for unlimited WAP project that focuses on community- cal broadcasts in indigenous languages. by texting 805 “wap.” For about 60 cents funded reporting. She graduated from In late January I witnessed about two daily, that person can browse the Internet the University of California at Berkeley dozen community radio stations’ vol- and have unlimited access. That’s cheaper with a Master’s in Journalism and has unteers crowding around a speaker to than texting and MMS. ten years of experience in nonprofit broadcast live from their mobile phones This trend in Central America falls development, public health and com- to their communities from Guatemala in line with the trend in the rest of the munity organizing. She has worked as City’s Congress. Every few minutes they world. The next two billion Internet us- a multimedia producer and photojour- would translate by phone into their com- ers will be people who make less than nalist for Agence France-Presse, France munity’s language, and then put the mo- $4,000 a year, according to Don Derosby 24, the Associated Press, the San Jose bile phone back to the speaker. On the of Monitor GBN. “It’s not about the net- Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and other end was the station volunteer put- work, it’s about the cheap mobile device,” the Oakland Tribune.

38 ReVista spring | summer 2011 new voices

La Silla Vacía Eight Ways the Internet Changes the Way We Think about the News

By Juanita León

In 2007, during my Nieman year at Harvard, I decided I wanted to start an interactive website, one that would probe Colombia’s power structures. As I started telling my colleagues about my idea, the most frequently asked question was, “What’s the business model?” I still don’t have a real business model, but lasillavacia.com has become the fourth most consulted source of information for opinion leaders in Colombia. Too much has been written about how the Internet is changing the face of journalism. Journalists are spending way too much time thinking about the business side of our profession, exactly the only thing we know very little about. We are not trained to think about how to make money; we do not have the skills to do it, nor the interest. Juanita León conducts an interview for La Silla Vacía. And while we either break our heads thinking about the business side or time doing journalism. done over the phone), processes all that panic about the impending end of our We’ve covered stories from corruption information and writes a piece. At La Silla profession, the essence of journalism is scandals to profiles of who’s who in Co- Vacía we still do that, but we have also dis- changing dramatically. The narratives, lombian politics. La Silla Vacía anticipat- covered that sometimes raw information the sources, the relationship to the audi- ed the Constitutional Court’s decision to is as appealing as a processed story, and ence, the production systems are no lon- overrule the law that would have allowed we may use it as a story in itself. We have ger what they used to be. Not even the President Uribe’s second reelection and a section called La Movida, where opin- concept of news. And this is something became a must-read during past elec- ion leaders have a password to sign on to about which we journalists might have tions because of its scoops. the page and answer the “question of the something to say, because I think that The first thing we realized when we week” in 1000 characters. It is an oppor- the future of journalism will be marked started La Silla Vacía is that the Internet tunity for users to have direct access to by art and technology. does not only change the distribution what leaders think without the mediation At La Silla Vacía, an investigative of the news. It also changes the way we and interpretation of the journalist. At the blog on politics in Colombia I created think about the news. Below are eight same time, at La Silla Vacía we publish two years ago, we have made it our goal ways in which we now think about news documents as raw information, with little to think about where journalism should at La Silla Vacía. notes similar to a post-it with some expla- head and to try to move in that direc- nations, but letting the document speak tion. The business part is still something 1. Raw information is the by itself. Or we cover judicial proceedings we have to think about but we have an story. vía Twitter, simply transmitting what is Open Society Institute grant and I’m Described in very simple terms, a jour- going on with no interpretation. an Ashoka-Knight Fellow, which means nalist usually interviews several sources, We are also trying to build interesting part of my salary is taken care of for the reads documents, experiences the place databases and offering a database as the next three years, so we can spend some of action (when all the reporting is not story in itself.

photo courtesy of juanita leon drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 39 Journalism of the Americas

2. The context is the story. tion, to distribute it, to fact-check it, and ond Life, because we are convinced that As Jean François Fogel said in “20 com- to complete it. We post the stories we are this is where journalism is heading. ments about the cyber giant http://www. working on on Facebook, asking for new letraslibres.com/index.php?art=12197,” sources. We open up a debate around the 7. The tools are the story. “the news in cyberspace is not an item stories in our forum link and then we At La Silla Vacía we have come to under- that’s hidden, but a bit of information post the stories we write on Facebook- stand that tools are sometimes the story. or a fact that someone rescues from the related groups to nurture them with our Applications such as Urtak, a tool that al- avalanche of information” (“La noticia new information. We see La Silla Vacía as lows users to formulate binary questions en el ciberespacio no es algo que se oc- a node that feeds from several networks, and to answer them as a random survey, ulta, sino un dato o un hecho que alguien which at the same time are fed by La tell a story in itself. With our webmaster, rescata del caudal de informaciones”). At Silla Vacía. And we really treat our users we are trying to develop or to personal- La Silla Vacía we are convinced that as part of our staff. They give us ideas, ize tools that already exist because we are context is not only useful background write stories that are edited by our au- convinced that news is also produced in information of news but the news itself. dience editor, follow up on questions by the interaction of users with specific in- Offering the systemic knowledge to us- other users and work on suggested story formation with the rest of the commu- ers about the topics discussed, putting ideas. At La Silla Vacía, news is the result nity of users. together all the bits of news about one of a collective work. topic in a single story, becomes the news. 8. The story is the aggregat- We have also created Topical Trends, a 5. The real-time story. ed and curated conversa- site on the main political issues so that Just as important as offering the con- tion on the web. users can follow the contexts they are in- textual story, we are convinced that im- What happens in cyberspace has become terested in more easily. mediacy is key. We cover many stories in almost as important as what happens in real time using Twitter, Cover it Live, and real life. Cyberspace is the new public 3. Transparent journalism: U-stream. Probably as a consequence, space where the debates are going on. the process of making the most of us have become voyeurs. Readers Curating that conversation is a key role story is also the story (or readers/news consumers?) want to of an Internet journalist. At La Silla Vacía Colombia novelist Gabriel García see what is going on, without any media- we monitor those conversations all day Márquez used to say that if you wanted tion from journalists. Just see the stream and aggregate them in a Twitter space to learn how to write, you had to under- of life going on. At La Silla Vacía we have called La Silla Dice, offering the links to stand the ‘seams’ of the story, how it was applied that concept to cover legislative the most interesting pieces of informa- done. We have applied that concept to sessions in Congress when the approval tion. By reading the links of the day, you La Silla Vacía and in several very special of a key law is pending; we have covered get the story of the day. stories we not only tell the story but show live important trials; we have created the the whole reporting process. We publish conditions for users to interview impor- Juanita León is the owner, founder and all the documents we used, the notes we tant politicians in real time and get their director of lasillavacia.com, an investi- took, the FOIAS (Freedom of Informa- answers in video. gative political blog in Colombia. She is tion Act information) we obtained, every a 2007 Harvard Nieman Fellow and a raw piece of information that helped us 6. The news is an immersion Columbia Journalism School graduate. build the story. In that way, users can experience. She is the author of Country of Bullets, read the story at two levels, evaluate our Half of our audience grew up playing about war in Colombia. conclusions with the reporting they are video games. Our goal is to offer them, in based on, and also use the documents for a couple of years, the possibility of having their own purpose. This gives us more an interactive experience in the news: to credibility. offer them the possibility of being the virtual protagonists of our stories, to 4. The news is a collective experience the dilemmas of policy mak- story. ers and to ‘intervene’ in the story with At La Silla Vacía we are convinced that their choices. We are following closely social networks are the base of the new the developments of people like Nony de media. The information is created and la Peña, the USC Annenberg researcher distributed by many-to-many. We there- who has become a pioneer of immersive fore try to create the conditions neces- journalism with games like Gone Gitmo sary for users to generate useful informa- that recreates life at Guantanamo in Sec-

40 ReVista spring | summer 2011 new voices

El Faro

Online Media and a Response to Violence by Carlos Dada

El Faro got its start as an online medium in San Salvador in 1998. El Salvador had just emerged from 12 years of a cruel civil war. The 1992 peace agreements, signed between a rightist government (and its army) and a leftist guerrilla force (the FMLN), marked a new beginning for the country, with guaranteed political participation for all parties in the political spectrum and a new set of institutions to start a new democratic process. In this context, the media found themselves in a totally new situation. An entire generation of journalists—used to working in the rightist confines of a restricted press—was soon replaced by young, inexperienced reporters right out of college. As such, two sons of exiles, Jorge Simán and I, returned to El Salvador to Photographer Donna DeCesare portrays how El Salvador has gone from civil war to gangs. start a new medium that would be hon- est and fresh, treating its public like in- This initiative comes after months since the armed conflicts that made head- telligent people. of reflection. We—El Faro co-founder lines worldwide in the ’80s. This time, a Because of our lack of resources to Jorge Simán and I—became convinced different kind of violence threatens the start a print medium—rather than a vi- that journalism’s only morally valid an- stability of the region: organized crime in sionary perspective—El Faro began as swer to the security crisis in El Salvador the form of gangs and drug cartels. an Internet operation. We had no money is precisely through long formats, which For the first time since the end of the to pay reporters. Also, since the Internet require the application of both journalis- armed conflicts, the world begins to see at the time was almost nonexistent in a tic and academic methods to understand Central America once again as a crucial poor country like El Salvador, it took us a what is happening. Only that contextual part of the criminal and political turmoil while to earn a place among Salvadoran understanding can explain the crisis to of Latin America. media. our readers. Today, the northern triangle of Cen- Now, El Faro is well-known both in Ever since its inception in April 1998, tral America (El Salvador, Guatemala El Salvador and internationally. And El before Google was born, El Faro has and Honduras) is the most violent part Salvador faces a different and escalating been growing constantly, experimenting of the world, with homicide rates up to situation, a security crisis spearheaded with new forms and searching for differ- 70 per 100,000. This only worsens a po- by organized crime. ent ways to tell compelling and relevant litically unstable situation, with Daniel Thus, in January of this year, El Faro stories. The Sala Negra is just one com- Ortega´s authoritarian government in inaugurated Sala Negra, a section dedi- ponent of El Faro, but one that tries to Nicaragua; the aftermath of a coup d’état cated exclusively to the coverage of vio- find different ways to explain the crisis of in Honduras and the long-scale infiltra- lence and organized crime, but in long violence that goes beyond the usual way tion of the Guatemalan state structures formats. We intend to publish in-depth of reporting on daily body counts. by organized crime. stories and investigative pieces, as well Several articles in this issue of ReVista While El Salvador is politically more as that most Latin American of genres: focus on the situation of violence in Mexi- stable than its neighbors, the country is the chronicle. We will also produce pho- co. However, Central America is now con- experiencing a deep economic and so- toreportages and documentary films. fronting one of its most difficult moments cial crisis. There is mounting evidence of

photo by Donna DeCESARE drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 41 Journalism of the Americas

the participation of law enforcement of- But during those seven years we also cratic institutions have not been able ficers in organized crime. In addition to had the chance to train a whole genera- to deliver a better life for citizens. Even the seemingly unstoppable problems of tion of Salvadoran journalists (and watch though we have registered great achieve- gangs, crude violence, drugs and arms- how, after a while, they left for main- ments since the end of the armed con- smuggling activities, extorsion and ven- stream newsrooms to continue their pro- flicts, the status of institutions in - Cen detta killings facilitated by an extremely fessional careers while finally earning a tral America has regressed in most cases high impunity rate, the country now salary). and stalled in El Salvador, the healthiest directly faces the incursion of Mexican In 2003, a pre-electoral year, we country in that context. drug cartels already present in neighbor- launched a special project to cover the We strongly believe that independent ing Guatemala and Honduras. presidential elections. We published our media play a crucial role in demanding mandate: we are not covering campaigns accountability and pointing out what is The first years but the electoral process. Thus, we not being done right in the state institu- Our new section is very much in keeping caught the attention of a couple of inter- tions. Thus, we put a strong emphasis with our history and our ideals. When we national agencies; for the first time, we on investigating corruption and abuse of first started, journalism students, full of had money to hire three reporters and a power. dreams and passion, came to us and built photographer for more than a year. They But we also believe that independent a newsroom where open debate and self- became the first people who ever received media should help strengthen a middle criticism became—and still are—the best a penny from El Faro. class and its values, opening spaces for ways to grow and learn from each other. Since then, we have designed several public discussion and debate. In search- This attitude enabled us to build a strong multimedia projects and stimulated de- ing for knowledge and understanding, brand identity—one that is now reflected bates on issues of politics, immigration the media provide intellectual tools for in the Sala Negra. and violence with support from other or- citizens to better understand reality and We knew from the beginning that we ganizations. We have increased both our make decisions. didn´t want to compete with mainstream sales and other sources of revenue. This For such media to thrive, it is not media. At a time when Internet gurus all has allowed us expand out newsroom to enough to have these convictions and over the world advised that we should more than 25 employees, producing ma- good journalists and editors to put them go for short and late-breaking news, we terials across different platforms such as into practice. A good public is also nec- insisted on long pieces published weekly. photography, radio, video, text, multime- essary. We have a very demanding read- Again, we acted on what we wanted to dia, books, DVDs, and conferences. Our ership that has pushed us to constantly do, rather than on some strategic vision newsroom is for the most part made up improve our work; a passionate reader- of the future of online media. of people who had their first journalistic ship that shows a much higher loyalty Somehow our stubbornness paid off. experience at El Faro many years ago. and sense of belonging than that of the Our readers found in our exclusive cov- They have come back with much more mainstream media, constantly provid- erage, our in-depth stories and our nar- experience, hunger and passion. And ing us with feedback through every pos- rative efforts an identity they liked, and they are now training a new generation sible way. they began to follow the website regular- of journalists. As we face new challenges, we will ly. El Faro started to earn respect, pres- continue putting our imagination at the tige, and many more readers. We can at- Democracy at stake service of our journalism; that is, experi- tribute this success to publishing articles It is often said that there is no democ- menting with new narratives and creat- that others preferred to ignore, revealing racy without independent media; but ing new projects that we think may help facts the government tried to keep hid- the opposite is also true: there are no in- toward the construction of a better soci- den and running stories about powerful dependent media without a democracy. ety with happier human beings. people nobody else dared to touch. Today, the democratic processes of the Nowadays that vision requires even For the first seven years, everybody Central American countries are at risk. stronger dedication. Hard times lie involved in the production of El Faro The levels of violence, impunity and vic- ahead. But it is precisely in such mo- worked on a voluntary basis. We were timization are alarmingly high, and citi- ments that our choices, and the work we not successful selling ads and we didn’t zens demonstrate, in poll after poll, less do, can be more important. have a proper business plan. Internet hope and more inclination to support penetration in El Salvador was by then other types of regimes if they can guar- Carlos Dada is the founder and director around 10 percent; the advertising mar- antee safety and a decent living. Democ- of El Faro. He received the 2010 Latin ket had no faith in the Internet and no racy, they say, has not been able to satisfy American Studies Association Media will to place an ad in a medium that was those basic needs. Award for the excellence and social rel- critical of the establishment. The problem, of course, is that demo- evance of the online publication.

42 ReVista spring | summer 2011 new voices

Investigative Journalism

CIPER Chile By Mónica GonzÁlez

It was the end of the year 2006. Six years where the pertinent information that af- realistic about my dream, he took out a of intense effort to create a newspaper to fects and determines our daily lives was piece of paper and started writing down break the duopoly of the written media a priority, and where professional rigor numbers. Finally, he took out his calcula- in Chile were coming to a close. Diario was an obligation. Without any political tor, added them up and said, “Let’s do it, Siete (Seven News), which I founded and blinders, without censorship and defi- I’ll finance it. I like this!” directed together with one of the best nitely without self-censorship. Without Thus Chile’s only Center for Investi- journalist teams in the country, closed its remaining silent in exchange for public- gative Reporting, CIPER, was born. We doors for lack of sponsorship from pri- ity. A dream. For some, a crazy dream. started on May 1, 2007, with four jour- vate companies and the state. Álvaro Saieh, one of the most impor- nalists sitting around that same desk in Frustration had overtaken the team tant businessmen in Chile, didn’t think it my house, this time joined by journalist members. After having worked inhu- was so crazy. He is the main stockholder and Columbia University professor John mane hours giving the best of themselves, of COPESA, one of the axes of the infor- Dinges, who accompanied us in the be- they ended up unemployed. A defeat for mation duopoly mentioned earlier. ginning, enthusiastic and full of ideas. those of us who had battled together with Saieh had financed 50% of Diario Si- The strict truth: it was a weak bet. so many others to recover a democracy ete, aware of the need to introduce more We weren’t even clear about what our without confrontations, preserving the diversity in the media, and he was sorry format would be. We thought that what few spaces where we could use our only to see it close. I think he had even be- wasn’t on paper didn’t have an impact. weapon: telling the truth despite intense come so fond of the paper that every day Six months later, we acquired a new repression. he provided information that was not to identity when the Chairman of the Board For this reason, there was no justi- be found in other media, that was en- of COPESA, Jorge Andrés Saieh—Álvaro fication, under the rule of democracy, tertaining, and that gave us our identity. Saieh’s son— took the initiative and cre- for state organizations to privilege the And one day in March 2007 in his large ated our first website to disseminate our same communications media they had office in Santiago, while asking that I be investigations. supported during the dictatorship with advertising money—the indispensable oxygen that they denied us despite the high quality of our widely-recognized in- formative work. This situation brought a group of editors from Diario Siete to sit around my desk at home to look for decent jobs that would allow us to survive. We were trying desperately to preserve a part of the team we had forged with so much care and conviction. And it was there that the dream began to take shape. It was born around a desk in my home, sharing a coffee with a group of journalists who longed to be able to extend their best talents to the public by providing truthful information and reporting. We thought of a media where investigative journalism was the main dish,

A young girl strolls past an occupied zone with a street mural.

photo by mónica gonzalez drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 43 Journalism of the Americas

Without publicity and without ad- ed other media to cite us as their source. good use and addicted to it. In fact, our vertising, the investigative website got And from then on, we had the respect of petition for information about a non- off to a timid start. The journalists in the media. profit foundation started by President Chile responded as if it were an artisan We were sure about our path. That in- Sebastián Piñera (the Future Founda- fraction of the media, one of those they vestigation won many prizes. And many tion), filed when he was a presidential derogatorily call “alternative,” and from more have been added since. However, candidate, was qualified by the Transpar- which they could plagiarize without re- it is not the awards and distinctions that ency Council of Chile as one of the ten repercussions. And they copied us shame- are important to us, rather, it is having quests that led to legal precedent in this lessly without attribution to the authors an impact on public policy and the public area. As a result, the balance sheets of all of reports that took more than a month debate. A good investigative product not nonprofit institutions have been declared of work to put together, and which these only supervises state and private power, it public information. third parties disseminated as if they also influences the public agenda by forc- Finally, we finished 2010 by publish- were their own. This is what happened ing changes in public policies that violate ing a book that compiles CIPER’s twelve with the investigation entitled “Robber or prejudice citizens and demanding the best investigations, which rapidly rose to Cop: Delinquents in Uniform,” which utmost care of public funds. the top ten on the non-fiction bestseller revealed the high percentage of corrupt This is what happened with our inves- list in the country. The book was a prod- police officers. tigation on the irregularities in housing uct of a multifaceted collaborative effort Not even when we published the un- development that the violent February between the Universidad Diego Portales precedented investigation called “Jour- 2010 earthquake left exposed. and CIPER to strengthen investigative ney to the Depths of Pinochet’s Library,” In these three years and eight months journalism in Chile and in the region. We which revealed an unheard of and abso- of life we have preserved this line of re- have multiplied the number of visits to lutely unknown facet of the former dicta- porting. We have put under scrutiny the our website from all over the world, prin- tor, was there public recognition of our private security business that recruits cipally from Latin America. We would work. But we had a lot of readers on the delinquents to guard homes and busi- not have been able to grow in impact and web. Cristóbal Peña’s library story later nesses, as well as the parallel water mar- greater production without the financial received the prestigious prize of best re- ket in northern Chile, where this vital el- support of the Open Society Foundation port of the year from the New Iberoamer- ement is bought and sold for millions to and the Ford Foundation, which believed ican Journalism Foundation (FNPI): an meet the demands of mining companies in our product from early on. award no Chilean had received before. while farmers and the local population Today, as we are about to become a The media silence continued until suffer from the transactions. We have nonprofit foundation, we are starting March 17, 2008, when we uploaded an also put the areas of Santiago occupied a new era. We are full of projects, all of investigation to our portal that repre- by drug traffickers on the map—areas which have the same purpose: to produce sented the work of three journalists over where neither state institutions nor the high impact, quality investigative jour- a period of more than two months. In the law dare to tread. And then there is the nalism that serves society and provides report we detailed the multiple irregu- groundbreaking X-ray of the clans who diverse information in a country where larities of the public bid for the techno- control the drug market in the capital practicing good journalism is a constant logical, communication, and computer city. We have not forgotten about retail challenge. program platforms of the Civil Registry, company labor abuses or sexual abuse awarded to the Indian company Tata perpetrated by priests. Both issues have Mónica González is the director of Consultancy Services BPO Chile S.A., touched on sensitive areas of the eco- CIPER (www.ciperchile.cl). González which would be in charge of administrat- nomic powers that be. has frequently given workshops around ing the entire Chilean public database (a For a year we investigated public hos- Latin America. In 2006 she received the US$80 million contract). pitals and demonstrated how doctors Career Tribute Award by the Fundación The next day the Judicial Minister deny the right to adequate health care Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano annulled the public bid; the following to millions among the poorest with their (FNPI) and in 2010 the UNESCO/ day he removed the staff officers of the poor medical attention—while in the Guillermo Cano Award for Freedom Civil Registry, and three days later he afternoons they give their best skills to of the Press. She also received the 1988 gave CIPER’s information to the Public those who pay for their appointments at Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience Ministry to initiate the judicial investi- private clinics. and Integrity in Journalism, awarded gation. For the first time, executives of a One key instrument for broadening by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard private company—the invisible partners our investigations has been the recently University, and the 2001 Maria Moors of corruption—were implicated in an of- implemented Public Information Ac- Cabot Prize for outstanding reporting on ficial investigation. The scandal obligat- cess Law. We have become experts in its Latin America by Columbia University.

44 ReVista spring | summer 2011 focus on mexico

Mexico today is a very dangerous place for journalists and their media. It’s more than a matter of the staggering numbers: more than 60 Mexican journalists have been murdered since 2000. Fear creates an atmosphere of terror and self- censorship, or, as Alfredo Corchado so eloquently notes: it’s midnight in Mexico.

n Midnight in Mexico 46 n Under Fire in Mexico 51 n Juárez in the Shadows 53 n From the Ashes of Violence 56

artistphoto bycredit Daniela name R andea url Journalism of the Americas

Midnight in Mexico

Press Challenges: A Personal Account By Alfredo Corchado photos by daniela rea

More than 60 Mexican journalists have In the border city of Ciudad Juárez, Three years ago as I prepared to cel- been murdered and dozens more have across from El Paso, more than 200,000 ebrate an award from Columbia Univer- disappeared since 2000, more than 30 people have fled the chaos, many to the sity—the Maria Moors Cabot prize—I in the past four years. United States. Today, parts of the border got a call from a trusted U.S. intelligence Every journalist in Mexico—some- region are increasingly silent. Our be- source who said “I have raw intelligence times even I, an American journalist— loved border is now paralyzed by fear and that says the cartels will kill an American wakes up to ask the following questions: chaos and stained by bloodshed. More journalist in 24 hours … I think it’s you. How far should I go today, what ques- than 36,400 people have been killed Get out of Mexico now.” tions should I ask, or not ask, where since Dec. 2006, nearly 8000 in Ciudad I called my U.S and Mexican col- should I report, or what place should I Juárez alone since January 2008. leagues who were preparing a celebra- avoid? And what photos should I take, or Whatever danger we U.S. correspon- tion dinner for me that evening and ignore. Should I wear a wig, pretend to dents face pales in comparison to the said, there’s a death threat and I think be a taco or an ice cream vendor at the dangers faced by our Mexican colleagues. we should cancel dinner. Dudley Althaus crime scene so that I can disguise myself I can call my editor, Tim Connolly, this from the Houston Chronicle, insisted, “If as I try to do my job, which likely means very second and say, Tim, I don’t feel safe they’re going to kill you, he said, they will reporting on the latest decapitated body anymore and he’ll say, get on the next have to kill us, too. So come on over and on the streets, or a hanging from a bridge flight out. That’s not the case for Mexi- have some tequila.” Subsequent solidar- in downtown Juárez, Cuernavaca, Nuevo can journalists. ity included a protest letter from the U.S. Laredo or Monterrey. Let me explain it to you this way: ambassador and editorials in some U.S. Should I even answer my cell phone? the difference between my Mexican newspapers. Because I know that if I do the person colleagues and me comes down to this: My Mexican colleagues can’t say the calling me is surely a man who calls him- citizenship. I’m thankful and grateful same thing. They don’t have that kind of self Boots, Rooster, Chicken or Rabbit, a to have parents who many years ago solidarity among themselves; they don’t spokesman for the drug traffickers. And dreamed big and were determined to share that trust with their own editors, once I answer that phone I have no lever- give my five brothers—Juan, Mario, less so with their own government. age to negotiate. It’s either follow an or- Francisco, David, Mundo and two sis- Today, the vast majority of the kill- der or face death, or the killing of a rela- ters—Monica and Linda—and me the ings in Mexico, whether you’re a woman tive, a son, or daughter because that’s the chance to dream and achieve. We mi- in Ciudad Juárez, or a cop, or your aver- reality in Mexico for a journalist today. grated from a poor community in Mex- age citizen, end up as crimes unsolved, The intense questioning, the doubts and ico to follow the crops in this country unpunished—“crímenes no resueltos.” the anxiety and stress have many of my when I was just six years old. Along the More than 95 percent of all crimes in Mexican colleagues and us on edge. journey, from Durango to Juárez, Cali- Mexico go unresolved. My colleagues and I are witnessing fornia to Texas and back to Mexico, I I dreamed of being a foreign corre- the bloodiest period in Mexico since the was able to obtain a little blue passport spondent not because I wanted to live 1910 Mexican revolution and the biggest that says I am a citizen of the United in some exotic land, but simply because threat to Mexico’s national security, its States of America. I wanted to return to my homeland. I young, fragile democracy and freedom of As imperfect as our judicial institu- ached for my roots, language and culture. the press. tions are, I have perhaps a naïve, but I often ask myself questions I thought I Mexico today is among the most dan- unwavering belief that if something is had finally resolved. Am I what I believe gerous places to do journalism in the to happen to me, there would be conse- world, right up there with Iraq, Russia quences to pay. That our newspapers, our On the contents page, the wife and 9-year- and Somalia. This is especially true for media companies, our colleagues would old daughter of Jaime Najera, 43, mourn in those of us who cover the U.S.-Mexico stand up and demand answers and jus- Ciudad Juárez. Opposite, Elías Ramírez, 32, of Morelia, Michoacán, was killed on his mo- border, once a frontier for Mexicans tice, that our deaths wouldn’t become torcycle January 1, 2009. That day, he didn’t seeking new opportunities and new be- just another number. Someone would say goodbye to his son Elías because he had ginnings. seek justice. caught him smoking. His son plunged into a bipolar disorder and a desire for revenge.

46 ReVista spring | summer 2011 [email protected] drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 47 Journalism of the Americas

I am? Do I belong to the United States, cartels, use the same route to distribute I stumbled onto the story seven years this powerful country built on principles drugs in more than 250 U.S. communi- ago when after a brief period at our of rule of law, yet still faced with con- ties where Mexican cartels have an in- Washington, D.C. bureau I was assigned tradictions—the insatiable appetite for fluence. Their role model is a thug from a story to investigate who was killing so guns, cash and drugs, or do I belong to Laredo, Texas, with the name Edgar Val- many women in Juárez. There I discov- Mexico, the country of my roots, where dez Villarreal, better known as La Barbie, ered the role of organized crime with the my umbilical cord is buried, where we a Texas high school football player who help of police in kidnapping and killing use nationalism and patriotism to more rose through the ranks as a hit man to some of these women, with no conse- often than not mask our corruption, our become the most notorious American in quences. poverty and inequality? a Mexican cartel. The heroes of my time After Juárez I discovered Nuevo The hyphenated complexities of being had names like César Chávez, or JFK, or Laredo, where Americans were also be- Mexican-American create a confusing Martin Luther King. ing kidnapped, and a new paramilitary feeling of being in-between. For me per- How did things get so bad in Mexico? group, the Zetas, members of the Mexi- sonally, this also instills a sense of a high- The answers are complex. Demand for can military partly trained by the U.S. er responsibility to share these stories, drugs in the U.S., the lure of easy cash, government, was terrorizing society. especially now when so many reporters the widespread availability of guns, espe- Suddenly, I was immersed in stories have been forced to censor themselves or cially high-powered weapons, smuggled about U.S. agencies mishandling infor- face death. from the United States. mants, or how U.S.- trained Mexican sol- As such I strive to understand that And on the Mexican side it had to do diers had gone rogue, or the deep corrup- when you cover Mexico, particularly the with ignoring a reality: corruption, com- tion inside the Mexican government. U.S.-Mexico border, nothing is black or plicity and greed. For too long, the two I had left Mexico for Washington in white. There are only shades of gray; that countries blamed each other and as they 2000, convinced by U.S. officials that to understand these stories you must go did, Mexico slowly descended into dark- the election of an opposition govern- deeper, and be able to see and distinguish ness. Corruption grew like a cancer with- ment, the end of 71 years of one party between shades of gray, understand that in the government. rule, signaled the automatic birth of not everything is as bad, or good, as it Today, Mexico’s conflict is really a war democratic institutions. Far from it, or- seems. within. It’s about a country trying to rede- ganized crime took advantage of a power And that there are always, always, al- fine itself, become a nation of rule-of-law, vacuum. With greater ease they bought ways many sides to this story. but without a clear path, or mandate. Few off entire police forces, politicians, be- Take for instance, the story of young can question whether President Calde- ginning with mayors and local govern- men who no longer dream of going to rón had any other choice but to take on ments. And then they also bought off the United States to toil in the fields, organized crime, which had reached the journalists. The cartels became de-facto but who see opportunity in becoming upper echelons of power. But whether governments. It was no longer the threat hit men in Mexico, earning as little as or not he had the right strategy and the of plata or plomo, silver or lead. It was 250 to 1500 pesos, the equivalent of $22 right people is a question that will haunt our way, or six feet under. a hit to $130 a week. As the old iconic him, Mexico and us for decades. These cartels are very sophisticated Mexican song from José Alfredo Jimé- The spillover into the United States about mastering the message. Today, me- nez, “la vida no vale nada” — life in Mex- isn’t so much about violence, but about dia members serve as spokesmen. Cartel ico is worth nothing. an exodus of Mexico’s most talented peo- spokespeople will call reporters or edi- We’re talking about a whole new gen- ple. And you’re seeing that in enrollment eration of children affected—numbed by in universities across the country. People Top: Sergio Adrián Hernández, 15, of Ciudad the daily violence around them and teens migrating today aren’t just nannies, or Juárez, Chihuahua, was killed by a bullet from both sides of the border who em- people picking your blueberries in Maine, fired by the Border Patrol June 7, 2010, brace a new lifestyle and a new saying: or caring for your cows in Vermont or while he was playing near the Río Bravo. “Prefiero vivir cinco años como rey, working in restaurants in Boston. No, His sister Angélica, pregnant with twins, tattooed an image of his face on her arm; que 50 años como buey.” I prefer to live we’re talking about well-educated profes- his niece Angi waits for him to return every five years as a king than 50 as an ox. sionals, people who used to create jobs— afternoon. Bottom: Jaime Nájera, 43, Ciudad Or consider the young Chicano gang people who now fear being kidnapped, or Juárez, Chihuahua, was killed just a few member who now uses the same immi- extorted by criminal gangs. blocks from his home by three bullets in his gration routes his grandparents used de- My biggest concern is that Mexico stomach and one above his eyebrow. His wife and nine-year-old daughter were wait- cades ago to embrace a new life, a chance has yet to reach bottom and nobody yet ing for him at home. His daughter fights with at an opportunity. Today, gang members, knows where that bottom is, or what it the neighbors when they say her father was hand in hand with powerful Mexican may look like. killed because he was “bad.”

48 ReVista spring | summer 2011 section header

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 49 Journalism of the Americas

Érika learned about the death of her husband Óscar García, 30, of Ciudad Juárez, guls, journalists will be poorly trained the ultimate editor who decides whether Chihuahua, on the television. They described and paid, something that will make them or not we pursue a story. him as the victim of a vendetta. He left vulnerable to the threats of organized Last year, I went to the city of Reyno- three children: Carolina, 10, Karina, 6, and crime. sa, Mexico, with some colleagues to con- Ernesto, 3. Carolina writes messages to her Earlier this year, Nieman curator Bob firm rumors of running gun battles on father on a piece of paper in which she says, “Send us the consolation we need because Giles wrote a piece of advice that ran in the streets in broad daylight. We heard we can never accept your death with resig- the New York Times editorial page: parents were keeping their kids home nation.” from schools, staying home from work, To the Editor: others were fleeing in droves to Texas. tors and dictate what should or shouldn’t The brave journalists reporting on the Because of a media blackout, some be covered in that evening’s newscast, or Mexican drug cartels under the most were resorting to Twitter, YouTube and in tomorrow’s newspaper. Imagine work- fearful circumstances should remember Facebook to share news about when it ing in a newsroom where you don’t know a cardinal rule of journalism: no story is was safe to go outside, or whether to drive if your colleague is the brave journalist, worth dying for. down specific streets. The big story on the or a spy for a cartel. front pages of newspapers in the area that Last year, El Diario de Juárez asked: Another friend, and one of the best day? The price of onions going up. what do you want from us? The mes- former Latin American correspondents, I’m not saying fear is wrong. I actually sage was aimed, the editor said, at the Doug Farah, constantly reminds me, “no think feeling fear is a powerful force. Fear drug traffickers. It was a way of express- color is worth dying for.” is a survival skill. If you’re not scared you ing their frustration, and sense of impo- I couldn’t agree more with Giles and become reckless. Fear forces us to stake tence of living in the shadow of organized Farah. Far from preaching that we all be stock of our lives and reminds us how crime. journalistic cowboys, I would argue that much life means to us. I’d want to believe that the message we must find a way to find a balance: So what we cover and how we cover was also meant as a wake up call for fear-versus-silence. We must find a way this story is a very personal decision. civil society, because until civil society to tell the story, and not let fear be the de- I became a 2009 Nieman fellow be- demands more from wealthy media mo- ciding factor, don’t allow fear to become cause I was scared, because I questioned

50 ReVista spring | summer 2011 focus on mexico

whether what I was doing was the right thing. When I returned to Mex- Under Fire in Mexico ico I felt numb, separated from the story because I realized I didn’t want ‘They Hit Us’ By Javier Garza Ramos to put my life on the line anymore. That sentiment changed on Janu- ary 31, 2010 when 16 people, most of them teens, were gunned down. It was past midnight, in the first minutes of the steel curtain that closed the entrance When I heard the news that Sunday Tuesday, August 18, 2009, when my cell at night, shattering six windows and put- morning, I felt, like many people, phone rang with a call from the news- ting holes in walls and furniture. well, they’re probably gang members. room of El Siglo de Torreón, the daily in Because the shots were fired at a So we went to check it out and soon Torreón, Mexico, where I work as editor- closed entrance, nobody was hurt, and discovered that most were students, in-chief. I thought it was a routine call the only people inside had been well pro- athletes, sons and daughters of par- about a breaking story. In a way it was, tected by the building itself. ents who had dreams for them; par- but the news value was the least of my When the night editor called to say ents who told them don’t stray too far concerns. “they hit us,” he didn’t need to explain from home. Celebrate your friend’s “Ya nos pegaron,” said the frightened who “they” were. Mexican media have birthday across the street, so you can voice of the night editor. “They hit us.” been under attack by organized crime be close to home. My heart sank. A “hit” might mean for the last five years, killing 10 journal- The hit men were wrongly tipped many things, the worst being a kidnapped ists, including one in Torreón. Five more off that the party was for a group of or murdered reporter. In this case, it had would be killed in the months following rival gang members. So they stormed been shots from an AK-47 fired at the the attack against El Siglo. Criminals had in and lined up and killed 13 of the 36, building from a corner across the street. carried out attacks with grenades or gun- while friends, or brothers and sisters The bullets hit the customer entrance of fire against the headquarters of news or- hid in closets, others hid underneath our advertising department, which was ganizations and were forcing the media the bodies of their friends and sib- closed at that hour. to impose self-censorship. lings. The burst of gunfire had gone unno- The next day we were flooded by calls I will never forget the day of the ticed in the printing department, where from Mexican media and national and funeral, the sight of a dozen hearses the presses were rolling at full speed, but international press associations express- on that street, the sight of coffins, the it broke the quiet in the newsroom, where ing sympathy and asking what had hap- wailing from parents, friends, broth- editors were putting the final touches on pened. ers and sisters. I’m grateful that it was the next day’s edition. At least 20 rounds Organized crime is what happened. a rainy day because I felt so angry that had been fired, and the bullets pierced In the previous two years, Torreón had I was able to mask my tears with rain- drops. And on that sad, gray, rainy morning I broke my silence and found my voice again.

This article is based on a speech deliv- ered by Alfredo Corchado on receiving the Elijah Lovejoy Award at Colby College.

Alfredo Corchado, Mexico City bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News, is a 2010-11 Visiting Fellow at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and a 2009 Nieman Fellow. He is currently working on a forthcoming book Midnight in Mexico: A Personal Account of My Homeland’s Descent Into Darkness. Bullets fired at the headquarters of El Siglo de Torreón struck the customer entrance. Nobody was hurt in the attack on August 18, 2009.

Photo by Javier garza ramos drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 51 Journalism of the Americas

quickly descended in a spiral of violence not get him, but Eliseo Barrón’s body was out of every ten of the more than 1,500 linked to the fight among the drug cartels found the next day in an irrigation canal. homicide victims in La Laguna since and the offensive against them launched After Barrón was killed, I huddled 2007 have had no connection to orga- in 2006 by President Felipe Calderón. with my deputy and the city editor to re- nized crime. They’re “collateral damage,” The number of homicides, kidnappings view our crime coverage and find ways as the government calls them. and street shootouts was on the rise. The to protect ourselves. We had done that That toll of innocent civilians rose proximity of La Laguna region to the before, and as a result, toned down the sharply in 2010 as the battle turned vi- border made it a zone coveted by drug stories on violence. Fully aware that we cious and the violence more widespread. cartels. A turf war had erupted. did not have government protection, we That year, armed groups attacked two The face of Torreón is very different felt that the only way to protect ourselves bars and a private party, shooting people from what it was even in the summer of was to avoid stepping on anybody’s toes. at random. Ten people died in an attack 2006, when I returned to take over the El We did not resort to self-censorship, but in January, another eight in a hit in May, Siglo newsroom. I had spent the previous decided to pursue a very limited, basic re- and 17 more in July. All were without any 12 years working in Mexico City, Wash- porting on stories about organized crime, connection to the drug cartels. In June, ington and Austin. Even in 2006, with sticking to official information without hitmen (sicarios) attacked a drug reha- the battle among the drug cartels raging conducting our own investigations. bilitation center, killing 11 people be- across Mexico, Torreón was still the quiet After the attack on our building, we cause some of them had been drug deal- city where I had grown up, rapidly grow- reviewed our recent crime coverage, ers from rival gangs. ing as an agricultural, transportation and searching for clues about the motive for The impact in the newsroom was industrial hub in northern Mexico. the hit. But we had published only police a mix of shock and powerlessness. We Drug trafficking had been seldom in reports on murders and shootouts, tak- rushed to report the wave of violence, the news, but that doesn´t mean it didn’t ing care to omit the names of the cartels but the possibility of an attack and the happen. As far back as the 1970s, La La- and avoid the appearance that we were lack of protection from the authorities guna had been a main crossing point for “keeping score” in their fight to control prevented us from going into the depth drugs from the Pacific ports to the Unit- La Laguna. We didn’t find anything that and breadth called for in a story of this ed States. The region is the crossroads might have provoked a criminal group. magnitude, with its dramatic effect on of northern Mexico, halfway between The Coahuila Attorney General told us the population. Mexico City and Ciudad Juárez, and the the most likely motive had been that a Our limits were put to the test in late Pacific coast and the Texas border. group wanted to “heat things up,” calling July. The Zetas cartel posted a video on Stories about drug trafficking and car- the attention of the Army and the Feder- YouTube showing a local cop being inter- tel activity in La Laguna popped up every al Police to the region presumably to hit a rogated by hitmen at gunpoint, confess- now and then, but after 2007, the inten- rival cartel, and believing that the attack ing that the sicarios that attacked the sity took everyone by surprise. However, on a newspaper would do the trick. But bars in Torreón were inmates at the jail attacks against journalists in the region the investigation soon went cold, and we in neighboring Gómez Palacio, who had had been unheard of until 2009, when never knew what really happened. been let out by the warden to carry out the events we had seen happening in In late 2006 and early 2007 the re- the killings. The inmates were associated other parts of the country hit home. gion came under fire from cartels seek- with the Sinaloa cartel, and the jail was After the attack against El Siglo, offi- ing to control the lucrative routes and the then taken over by federal authorities. cials from the federal government and profitable local market for drug selling. A few days later, while reporting the the Coahuila state government pledged Homicides spiked dramatically, from an Federal Police presence at the jail, two cooperation and a full and swift investi- average of one every four days in 2007 cameramen and one reporter from two gation. But the promises were taken with to one every two days in 2008, to one TV stations (Televisa and Milenio) were a grain of salt, because most previous per day in 2009 and almost three daily kidnapped. One of our reporters had attacks against the media remained un- in 2010. Shootouts breaking out in ma- been with them until 15 minutes before solved and were quickly forgotten. jor avenues infused the population with the abduction; when he returned to file Barely three months earlier, in May, panic. Commerce fell; the once active his story, we sent another reporter to Eliseo Barrón, a reporter at La Opinión nightlife shut down. Innocent bystand- replace him, but pulled him from the (our main competitor) had been kid- ers began to be added to the toll—a four scene as soon as we learned about the TV napped at his house. When our lead po- year-old boy caught by a bullet during crews. For the next five days we did not lice reporter learned of the kidnapping, a firefight between the Army and an send anyone to cover any story in Gómez he thought the criminals would go after armed group; a 25-year-old engineer in Palacio, no matter how trivial. more journalists; he was resigned to be- his house, hit by a bullet from a shootout As it turned out, the kidnapping had ing kidnapped that same night. They did next door. And dozens more: roughly one been a way for the Sinaloa cartel to black-

52 ReVista spring | summer 2011 mail Televisa and Milenio into broadcasting interrogation videos of their own, in which police officers talked about links between local politicians and the Zetas. After pressure from news organizations and press associations, and widespread international coverage, the Fed- eral Police rescued the reporters and arrested eight people. But a dangerous precedent had been set: if a cartel doesn’t like certain coverage, it can always kidnap a reporter to force his newspaper or TV station into running its own version. The kidnapping also reinforced our strategy of doing basic reporting on violent episodes, and we found a way to make up for it with stories about crime statistics, the spike in armed robberies, the social and economic impact of violence, the testimonials of people living under its shadow, and the links between poverty, unemployment and crime. But the incident had left a deep scar among journalists in La Laguna, dramatically underlining the threat. Our feelings were symbolized by the editorial that El Diario de Juárez ran in Sep- tember after the murder of one of their photographers. “What do you want from us?” El Diario asked the cartels in Ciu- Juárez in the Shadows dad Juárez, addressing them as the “de facto” authorities of the city. A Blogger’s View By Judith Torrea For three years, I had been thinking long and hard about what circumstances I would have to face for writing an editorial like that. But my thoughts were It is ten minutes before midnight; I’ve al- world. I do not always find a place to always private, quietly hoping that, as ready reported on ten crimes in fewer publish my stories, so my blog Ciudad an editor responsible for the safety of El than six hours. Today, fifteen people Juárez, en la sombra del narcotráfico Siglo’s reporters, I would never be con- have died. (Ciudad Juárez, in the shadow of drug fronted with that situation. Until now I To remember the exact number of trafficking) (http://juarezenlasombra. have been spared, but other editors and muertitos—little dead people, in the blogspot.com) arose from my need to reporters have had to face it, and maybe very particular journalistic jargon of make all those stories public. Without it’s just a matter of time. In these days Ciudad Juárez—I have to look at my having to wait for an editor. Without in La Laguna, a hit is always around the notes. At times, I am at one crime scene self-censorship. corner. for only fifteen minutes. I have to go My stories are not investigative re- rushing out to another “event.” Ciudad porting. They are features on daily life Javier Garza Ramos is editor-in- Juárez is a sprawling city and it takes in this city, seen through my eyes. Pub- chief of El Siglo de Torreón in Torreón, time to go from one place to another. It lishing these stories in my blog helps Mexico. He studied in the Universidad is a big and violent city, but one with a me feel alive among constant death. It Iberoamericana and the University of fierce blue sky and magical sunsets. is my cry for justice. Texas at Austin, and has worked as edi- I am a journalist. And now I am a tor and reporter for Reforma in Mexico freelance journalist in a city that is cat- Children were witnesses to the crimes at City, and Rumbo de Austin. egorized as the most dangerous in the Senderos de Pamplona.

photo by judith torrea drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 53 Journalism of the Americas

The hardest part is thinking about these events. I realize that the horror that many of my sources predicted (and many of these sources have now been murdered themselves) not only has been surpassed, but now a new ingredient has been added: Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s so-called war against the nar- cos, in the context of the struggle between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Juárez Cartel to take over the drug routes that extend from Colombia to U.S. consumers. Since the war began, more than 7,300 people have been murdered in the city. Ciudad Juárez has become a militarized city. If before January 2008, it was poor, attractive women who disappeared, death has now been democratized. Mere- ly being alive is dangerous. The murders have left 10,000 orphans—children who run the risk of growing up to be paid assassins—sicarios—if the Mexican authorities don’t take action. I am a journalist and prefer to give voice to the voiceless. Hopefully, the por- traits of the victims I publish on my blog help readers to reflect on the war; there is nothing else I can do. I can only report what I see. Here are a few exerpts from my blog.

The Narcocorrido Announcing Death A little after five in the afternoon on Wednesday, November 11, the radio of the municipal police in Ciudad Juárez was interrupted for a few seconds by a Luz María Dávila mourns her only two sons in two coffins February 2, 2010. narcocorrido—a drug-related Mexican musical ballad. sprawled by the side of a latest-model door in the working class neighborhood I could not tell if this was a song pre- white Avalanche SUV; another inside a of Lomas del Rey. The federal police have ferred by the Juárez cartel or that of Si- black Pontiac. just arrived, although the body has been naloa, two drug groups that are battling Some schoolchildren recounted de- lying on the ground for an hour. Then for control of this much-desired (codi- tails of the murders. They were the first the military and the municipal police ciada) zone—and fight even on the police witnesses; they were getting out of class show up. They are all looking at the body. radio waves. when they saw an armed group of men Some are right up close. Others maintain The only thing that I could be cer- with machine guns pursuing the two vic- a distance, like the two federal policemen tain of was that death was approaching. tims. (continues on the blog) who chat with two teenage girls sporting Someone was going to be murdered. Half white skin, charming smiles and jet- an hour later, the Senderos de Pamplona Seven Deaths in Fewer Than black eyes. Street in a working class neighborhood Seven Hours Junior was 18. He worked alongside became a spectacle of horror. He was called Junior, at least until an his father in a mechanic’s shop, and all When I got to the street, one body was hour ago. Now he lies at his girlfriend’s the neighbors said he was a good kid.

54 ReVista spring | summer 2011 photo by judith torrea focus on mexico

Today, out of the blue, a black Explorer a la ban! Chuy, Chuy and no one else!” she never thought would happen: being SUV sped up, and Junior began to run. And then he hears the memorial shouts chosen a beauty queen. Another vehicle cornered him. They for those lying in the six other tombs. Her daughters, three and four years gunned him down. Jesús Armando Segovia (“Chuy”) old, began to tell her, “See, mommy, you Thirty-three bullet shells were on the was 15, although on his white cross they are my princess.” And she would tell ground, more than found in his body. listed him as two years older. He was an them that someday they would be prin- Now he is one more cadaver—for many. excellent student and sportsman. To the cesses too. For Marta, no; he is the eighth neigh- authorities, he was one more member of She looks at the picture of the Virgin bor she has lost in seven months and in a gang. of Guadalupe she has painted in jail. She many of these cases, the gunshots have For many, saying that someone is a has been sentenced to five years in prison been heard; the body was seen lying in gang member is an easy way to justify lack for possession of five kilos of marijuana. a pool of blood; the emergency number of legal investigation; only social or politi- Sitting on her small bed, she expresses 066 had been called to ask for help. cal pressure can galvanize the authorities painful emotions through her large eyes. “Can I ask you for help with some- into action, as happened in the case of the She did not want to see him, not in this thing? I need a psychologist for my femicides. The justice system is severely fashion, in a coffin, his body tortured. friend. Her 15-year-old son was killed flawed and impunity is rampant. And headless. three months ago. She can’t sleep; she “Chuy” was one of 16 kids who were She did not want to see him, Iván doesn’t want to live,” she asks. She says murdered Saturday at a student party, Roque, her husband, murdered one day before his 30th birthday. They offered to bring his body to the jail and to open the coffin for a few sec- Hopefully, the portrait of the victims I publish on onds so that she would be able to mourn my blog help readers to reflect on the war. There is him. But she thanked them and refused the offer. She wanted to remember him nothing else I can do. I can only report what I see. alive and whole. (continues in the blog)

Epilogue nothing about herself—a 46-year-old and one of seven who were given their I live in this city that I have chosen. In woman who has lost eight neighbors to final farewells on the same street, in the a place where great deeds of solidarity violence in as many months. same church and in the same cemetery. take place while human lives are being (continues on the blog) They were all neighbors. snatched every single day, and the world Their friends buried them, children only waits to see how more deaths there Children Burying Children burying other children. They ranged will be in my dear Juárez, where the blue I don’t know how to begin to tell you from 13 to 19 years old, more or less the sky turns into the ochres, oranges and what I experienced today, Wednesday, same age as the kids who were executed, red tones of magic sunsets—until they February 3. converted by the violence of their deaths kill you. The 40-year-old gravedigger Manuel into alleged gang members and drug traf- Cano is also speechless. His tear-filled fickers. The mourners were closer to be- Judith Torrea is an independent jour- eyes betray the depths of his emotions. ing children than adolescents. You could nalist and blogger from Spain. She re- Like Juárez’s intensely blue sky that has tell that by the way they dressed, by their ceived the 2010 Ortega y Gasset Award, suddenly turned a fierce gray with heavy airs of innocence. the most important journalism award rain during much of the day. All these kids were still in school, in the Spanish-speaking world. At the And Cano has seen many coffins. studying hard, the only rays of light in time, she was the only foreign journal- More than 6,000. But the last ones were the working class neighborhood of Villas ist living in Ciudad Juárez. She is the the hardest to take in all his ten years de Salvárcar, where most people work in second blogger who has won the award: working at the cemetery. “Ciudad Juár- assembly plants. But hope has now been Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez won it in ez is being massacred. It is a ghost city. massacred in this militarized city. 2008. There’s no future here,” he explains as he shovels dirt on another grave, one of sev- The Prison Queen en in a row. The gravedigger continues, In April, six months ago, her image was The texts quoted in this article come from the blog: “Ciudad Juárez en la sombra del covering the same graves that he has dug. published around the world. She was narcotráfico”(”Ciudad Juárez in the Shadow of Meanwhile, he is listening to cheers like smiling. Then she was crying, tears of Drug Trafficking”), http://juarezenlasombra. “Chuy, presente!!! We love you! A la bio, happiness. She had achieved something blogspot.com

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 55 Journalism of the Americas

From the Ashes of Violence Building Justice through Journalism by Marcela Turati

Ever since that afternoon when school- ered a new class of individuals—fearless of Mexican reporters became concerned teacher Gloria Lozano stared at her only and brave, with a burning desire to ob- with responsible journalism with human son riddled with bullets on an empty tain justice. Their pain had forced them rights as its focus. Even before we had lot next to the bodies of twelve other to break away from the pattern of vic- the slightest suspicion that Mexico would young people, all victims of a hit squad timhood that I had witnessed on other turn into a battlefield, we began to join —among them, a first-time dad embrac- assignments: people paralyzed by fear, together in what we later called the Net- ing his infant—ever since then, neither ashamed and stigmatized, frustrated by work of Social Journalists, roughly equiv- she nor any of the other families of the impotence. alent to “Grassroots Journalists.” “Creel martyrs” would ever be the same. Since that time of the Creel massacre, We wanted to organize to develop our In their struggle for justice, the families I have given myself the assignment of try- tools of investigation, good writing, in- have blocked highways, staged marches, ing to discover in the midst of the horrors formation planning and new knowledge taken their message to radio stations, and tragedies those people who have the for the purpose of covering effectively for dragged cardboard coffins through the strength to organize themselves, to share our media social-oriented themes such as streets, interrupted government events, their pain to heal others, who take to the health, education, human rights, ecology blanketed businesses with official posters streets to reclaim them for the citizens. and migration—vital information that al- offering rewards for gunmen’s arrest, Their hearts may be broken, their lives lows citizens to understand what is hap- corraled the governor, the mayor and ruined, the coffins still reposing in the pening, but information that is often per- whatever official they could get their living room, but they find the strength to ceived by editors as a way of filling space. hands on and, in a tactic that surprised act, and I in turn must find the strength Political, judicial and economic stories, even themselves, stopped a train carry- to honor these stories of courage in the as well as entertainment and publicity, ing tourists to Barrancas del Cobre. For a midst of their grief. all take precedence over issues of social long time now, they have been investiga- It has not been easy. I have managed relevance. tors. They now know who murdered their this kind of reporting only a few times. In order to strengthen our work, we children. Now they want justice. One must be able to observe closely and began to contact experts in social de- have a lot of patience. And, above all, velopment and well-known journalists “We are not afraid; they have killed us one first must move through the difficult from other countries who were passing already, along with our children,” shouts paths of one’s own paralysis, fear, impo- through Mexico. Without a budget of an angry Lozano, each time that she tence, fatalism, to touch much pain in or- our own, we invited these experts to din- thinks of the possible consequences of her der to denounce its causes, to improvise ners or breakfasts in exchange for giving odyssey. and even to make mistakes. talks. The inevitable question we posed The cyclone of violence surprised us was how to focus on coverage on human Reporting on the Creel massacre in the Mexicans, and journalists were not pre- rights issues. Mexican state of Chihuahua was a wa- pared. We were overwhelmed by the new Then drug violence began to escalate. tershed for me in my weekly systematic codes of blood in which extermination is In 2007, several of our group were sent coverage of the social effects of the vio- the goal, where fury is the message and is to the battlefront. I was assigned by the lence in Mexico. Along with many of us expressed through decapitated, carbon- magazine Proceso to cover Ciudad Juár- Mexican journalists, I became a war cor- ized, disappeared bodies, dissolved in ez, the epicenter of Mexican violence, respondent in my own country, after the acid, executed, tortured, massacred. which since that time has become the drug cartels and the Army turned it into We tried to keep our focus on the so- city with the highest murder rate in the a battlefield, a surge of violence many of- cial implications, rather than statistics, country. I confess that I—and several of ficially date back to 2007. on protagonists, rather than victims. This my colleagues—did not even know the In the highlands community in the type of journalistic coverage did not take names of the various drug cartels who state of Chihuahua where the 13 youth place in a vaccum. Since 2006, before were fighting over turf. But the one tool were murdered in August 2008, I discov- the explosion of drug violence, a group that we did have was training to identify

56 ReVista spring | summer 2011 focus on mexico

A mother remembers her son. the factors that were provoking violence scene of bloody crimes, interviewing wit- call journalism that denounces what is in the society. nesses or survivors, attending funeral happening and announces what can be The emergency forced us to impro- wakes, searching for facts about the vic- changed. vise coverage in the best way we could. tims with which to construct a skeletal Thus, we began to describe the mis- However, we found it to be a compli- obituary or reconstructing a massacre to fortunes of poor towns forced into the cated exercise fashioned day after day “document the horror.” cultivation of poppies, the raw material in the heat of each new emergency. We But it got to the point that the pile of for heroin. We covered the tragedy of “ju- required constant training, education of dead people seemed infinite, in which venicide” (young people murdering other our faculties of observation, learning to each massacre seemed just like the last young people), the drama of towns with read accounts of trials, constructing a one, in which six terrible pieces of news populations exiled by violence, the sto- different discourse, overcoming fear and competed with each other for front page ries of prisoners tortured into confessing making sure that indignation and hope space. Coverage had to be conceived in a their guilt as hitmen, the surge in human do not simply burn out. For a long time, manner that would not just be reacting rights violations. As we began to report we merely kept a body count that in the to events—just as we had conceived our on these situations, relatives of victims newsroom we dubbed the “execution socially-oriented coverage on health and began to show up in the newsroom with meter,” the daily statistics of deaths that education issues. It was the moment to photos in their hands, looking for family police reporters kept as evidence of the seize the agenda, take it away from the members who had been forcibly disap- torment of blood. violent ones who had set it, to give back peared by the Army, the police, drug traf- Suddenly, the violence was so great a sense of life and dignity to the victims fickers or for absolutely unknown- rea that some of us reporters who had prom- and power to the citizens. That is: to sons. Soon, these isolated visits became ised ourselves that we would never cover shed light on what is happening through a flood of family members hoping to find drug trafficking found ourselves at the the lens of human rights. That is what I information about their loved ones.

PHOTO BY MARCELA TURATI drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 57 Journalism of the Americas

she did accept giving away her murdered son’s possessions so that others could put them to good use.

Grief therapy in Ciudad Juárez was the subject of my story of a religious collective’s recently organized workshops to heal the families who had lost one or more family members. This served as a mirror, a painful one, which reflected the profound social damage caused by the murders. During a year and a half, I had asked each one of the social organizations if they had created some sort of a support system for the families of the thousands of people murdered in the city, but they only replied that they had been overwhelmed by the violence. I discovered the grief workshops only when I saw a sign on the street inviting families to grief workshops in the church. Mourning in Mexico. In every armed conflict, there is an abundance of victims and we need to find The emergency forced us to beef up their neighborhoods, and each of us had a way to explain how their suffering is a our training sessions. Through the jour- to grieve (or at least to worry). matter of concern for the entire society. nalists’ association, we organized courses Certainly, there is a moment when the From the beginning, thanks to the train- on the risks of militarization; on drug individual anecdote becomes so draining ing we had received from our Colombian trafficking networks from cultivation to that readers are no longer willing to read colleagues and because of our dedication consumption; social themes that inter- about personal tragedies. This fact oblig- to covering social themes, the report- sected with security issues; the experi- es us to shape our stories in a different ers in our network made the decision to ence of the Colombian conflict; how to fashion and piece together the individual make the victims visible because those interview children affected by the vio- tragedies so that they become a reflection who commit the violence inevitably have lence; how to protect ourselves and de- of a social phenomenon. headlines guaranteed in the media, as re- fend freedom of expression. porters are always keeping track of these The government line considers the as- “Who has done their task?” asks the psy- violent crimes and the perpetrators are sassination of more than 34,000 Mexicans chologist at the beginning of the group always the protagonists. in this war a victory, alleging that nine out session. The students remained silent Facing the grief of others is always a of every ten deserved that fate because in their seats. She reminds them that delicate task, and it requires preparation, they were drug traffickers. We refused to their task is to give away the clothes of patience and time. On many occasions, accept that explanation and kept on in- the dead person to advance the grieving those who have been victims of violence vestigating; we are not toeing the govern- process. Or at least to try to do so. are too afraid to talk to journalists or ment line of blaming the victims. We also A woman in the audience com- they see reporters as vultures who prey refuse to be involuntary spokespersons ments that it freaks her out to give the on others’ grief. for drug traffickers in waging a campaign expensive suits belonging to her son, a In such situations, we also seek to of fear which they staged a macabre per- policeman known for his elegance and avoid portraying victims as defenseless formance with the bodies of their rivals to neatness, until he was gunned down. The people, lacking in options and rights. In- instill terror and to deprive their victims woman’s remark sparks a question from stead, we must try to make these victims of any remaining humanity. an elderly man who asks if it is bad to visible as protagonists, as able to take At this point, several journalists de- converse every day with the photo of his charge of their fate and, against all odds, cided to give the gruesome statistics a son who was murdered in the street. A as people who demand that their rights face, to rescue the histories of the dead, worker confesses that she could not get be restored or organize themselves to to learn their ages and what impact their herself to get rid of her husband’s belong- help others. absence had caused in their families, in ings because he was still missing, though It required systematic reporting over

58 ReVista spring | summer 2011 PHOTOs BY Judith Torrea (this page); Marcela Turati (opposite) focus on mexico

a long period of time to ferret out the citizens who are organizing themselves, who have lost their fear and resist their situation with dignity. In violence-torn Mexico, collectives of mothers in search of their disappeared children have sprung up; families have united in the investigation of the murders of their family members; students connect with others through Twitter to oppose the violence and artists take to the streets with the mission of recovering them as public space for citizens. In reporting their activities (but at the same time making sure not to put these courageous people at risk), we have opened a window of hope in moments in which it seems there is no possibility of hope. With these types of stories, we hope to enable the population to recover its self-esteem, to seek out others to work together collectively and we Mother with a portrait of her son. provide a face to victims as individuals, who in spite of the tragedies, have not pieces, others wrapped in tears, and al cartels had become internationalized, been defeated. others wounded with deep scars. Then citizens found that through my coverage she suggests healing and they start to of their organizations in the news, they The cost in lives lost to the violence has add bandaids, adhesive tape, tissues and could exchange strategies for action and been so high that the sons and daugh- little flowers into their drawings. They survival both domestically and interna- ters of murdered people participate in even manage to fix some of the scars that tionally. almost every mundane venue from day wound their souls. We journalists are key to this process care centers, to classrooms,to catechism of citizen empowerment. We make vis- classes to sports events. The so-called The story we wrote on therapy for chil- ible the actors who are protagonists for “orphans of the executed” are found dren orphaned by the violence motivated change and describe the strategies that everywhere, a collective that is all too sixty psychologists from Chihuahua to have produced results. We can collabo- easy to join. create a network of therapists devoted to rate in helping people to overcome the Many have participated in group alleviating the social pain caused by over- paralysis of fear and we can provide tools therapy. For them, organizations such as exposure to violence, and two months lat- for the construction of a different future. Casa Amiga have created a therapeutic er, these psychologists allied themselves atmosphere with a psychologist who, in with the recently created organization of Marcela Turati is a staff reporter for the midst of guided relaxation, instructs families of the disappeared. Proceso magazine, where she covers them, for example, in these words: “Now, The creation of the two networks was human rights, social development, and lying down like this, with your eyes still a beacon of hope in the context of the the social effects of the narcoviolence. She shut, with your body now relaxed, bring desolation experienced in many regions is co-author of the book La guerra por to your mind, the death of your dad, of the country. The network of the fami- Juárez (The War for Juárez) and author at what moment did you learn that he lies of the disappeared, together with of the book Fuego Cruzado: las víctimas had been killed? Feel your heart beat- human rights activists, exchanged legal atrapadas en la guerra del narco (Cross- ing? What did you feel then? What was and psychological tips, and strategies for fire: Victims Trapped in the Drug War), the expression on your face when you political struggles. They discussed how (Grijalvo), which dicusses the social got the news?....” When she leads them to take cases to the international courts damage caused by drug violence during into a state of profound sleepiness, the to continue on with their search and to the Felipe Calderón presidency. She is therapist asks them to draw what they obligate the Mexican state to investigate co-founder and co-administrator of the visualize and in their drawings, they the disappearances. Network of Social Journalists (Grass- depict hearts that have been cut into In the same way that the internation- Roots Journalists).

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 59 making a difference

Inheritors of History

A Conversation with Barbara Fash

The two sandal-clad ten-year- completing a 2 year NEH old girls in bobbing ponytails grant to digitize all of its glass might have been tourists or plate negatives from the 19th children on a school excur- century. The Copán nega- sion. Instead, these enthusi- tives are the earliest ones, astic youths were explaining which prompted the Peabody the background of the Fragile Museum’s Curatorial Board to Memories: Archaeology and ask me to consider making an Community, Copán, Hondu- exhibit about them. An im- Young docents in the museum ras 1891-1900 exhibit, a col- portant part of the Peabody lection of 19th century photos Museum’s mission is outreach more can be done with the 4-6 p.m. after school, with housed in the Municipal to its descendant communi- school programs and teach- different children work- Palace in Copán Ruinas. ties through exhibitions and ers, not just from Copán, but ing each day in pairs. We’ve They are part of a team collections research, so I throughout Honduras. taken them to the ruins and of nine girls and one boy, agreed to curate the exhibit, to classes with students in ranging from 9 to 12 years but with a return request to How did the young the Harvard Archaeology old, who are trained to show them that the museum would docent program de- summer field school. Our visitors around the exhibit. donate the exhibition to the velop? archaeology project’s local For these youngsters, it is a town of Copán after it came I first came upon a young do- Community Liason, Karina lesson in volunteerism and down. cents program in the cultural García, also spent many civic participation—but also center in Gracias, Honduras. hours working with the young in their own history and What did you hope Children were explaining group. We’re trying to get heritage. These images from to achieve with the the artifacts and the rooms them beyond reciting the the 19th century are their exhibit? dealing with agriculture and information by rote—to think history, and Copán Ruinas is I hope that the exhibit will food-making. I thought it was about their past, which is also their town. enable people from Copán to very compelling to see youth their future. reconnect with their history so involved and proud of their There is a long way to go What motivates you and visualize the community past. in developing this program. about this project? the way it was in its infancy, I took the idea back to And there is a lot I am learn- Developing this docent pro- and instill in them a sense of Copán. Flavia Cueva, who ing too, about how these gram has been a wonderful civic pride. Reflecting on its runs a bed-and-breakfast in young people look at their way to work with people that history and development will Copán and has taught prima- culture and their history. I’ve spent 30 years of my life hopefully help people work ry school in the United States, with, that I’ve raised my chil- together to consider what was recruited as the project’s Barbara Fash is the Direc- dren with. This project is all positive future directions promoter. She worked with tor of the Corpus of Maya about them as a descendant they want for their town and teachers in the area, who in Hieroglyphic Inscriptions community that is part of the move to implement them. turn asked for essays from Program. She is the author photographic collection. The exhibit underscores how interested students about of The Copan Sculpture the town and the archaeol- why they would like to work Museum:Ancient Maya How did the exhibit ogy have always shaped as docents. Students who Artistry in Stucco and Stone come about? each other, and this process wrote the best essays were (Peabody Museum and David The idea for the exhibit continues today. These young then interviewed for qualities Rockefeller Center for Latin came about in 2006 when docents are the keepers of such as self-assurance. American Studies/Harvard the Peabody Museum was the knowledge. We hope The docents work from University Press).

60 ReVista spring | summer 2011 book talk

Guatemala: An Urban Focus

A Review by Kirsten Weld

Securing the City: Neoliberal- attempt the worthy task of parts of Securing the City feel ism, Space, and Insecurity in addressing this gap. thin; the book’s focus on the Postwar Guatemala, by Kevin Taking a page from New practices of post-war neo- Lewis O’Neill and Kedron Left theorist Raymond Wil- liberalism leads it to largely Thomas, eds. (Duke University liams, the contributors to neglect a serious analysis Press 2011, 240 pages) Securing the City unpack of the hobbled Guatemalan varied spatial imaginar- state or its pre- and post-1996 Guatemala City is a difficult ies of both urban and rural continuities. For example, place to live, much less to Guatemala in order to dissect the editors define neoliberal love. Smoke-belching buses the crises provoked by the practices as “the broad-scale clog its arteries, lurching past country’s neoliberal turn. The transference of state func- shantytown-lined ravines, volume’s finest essays—those tions to private citizens” with down once-grand boulevards, by Deborah Levenson, Manu- particular emphasis on the and through the hardscrabble ela Camus, Rodrigo Véliz and privatization of security in the neighborhoods of the work- coeditor O’Neill—illuminate post-war period. Yet private ing poor, against which the the corrosive effects that security forces, some run di- glitz of the Zona Viva stands the growing polarization of cariousness of everyday life in rectly out of the offices of the in cruel counterpoint. Com- wealth, the deterioration Guate—O’Neill and Thomas National Police, existed even muters rush home at dark of family and communal themselves attempt to “secure during the worst of the war to avoid becoming statistics: ties, and the privatization the city,” to comprehend and years, to say nothing of the the homicide rate, at 109 per of public space have had on theorize it. They emphasize paradigmatic example of se- 100,000, is one of the highest a country still reeling from that a new neoliberal order curity outsourcing—the mass in the world. One edition of decades of bloody state re- is to blame for the capital’s conscription of hundreds of the travel guide Lonely Planet pression. Finally, the editors ills and extremes, an order in thousands of Maya villagers bluntly includes, among its argue that, far from being which “a new set of practices to serve in Civil Self-Defense top five highlights of Guate- discrete spheres, urban and and strategies…privatize what Patrols (PACs). Speaking of mala City, “leaving.” rural Guatemala are inextri- would otherwise be the state’s the police, they win only the It’s not only tourists cably linked—by commerce, responsibility” for guarantee- scantest of passing mentions who’ve fled the city but aca- by culture, and above all, by ing Guatemalans’ health and in this book. How can we demic researchers too, who failed post-war expectations. welfare. As the essays show understand the privatization often prefer to base them- “Living the peace,” one us, citizens have improvised a of postwar security without selves in the highlands where essay suggests, “has proven wide array of coping strat- looking seriously at civil the breathtaking volcano elusive.” To find out why, egies—informal-economy policing and at the thus-far views come smog-free. As the Securing the City’s con- entrepreneurship, migrating failed attempts at police editors of Securing the City: tributors examine what for security guard jobs and reform? Neoliberalism, Space, and In- they call the “practices of more. And while the editors cri- security in Postwar Guatema- neoliberalism.” Through It’s hard to dispute that tique the fact that the neolib- la point out, most scholarship this series of snapshots—of structural adjustment policies eral state cannot keep its citi- on Guatemala has focused the informal economy, of and the opening of markets zens safe, counterinsurgency on the rural life of the Maya, the private security industry, to a rather cynical inter- survivors will recall that the neglecting the capital city and of urban gentrification, of pretation of “freedom” have pre-neoliberal state didn’t its rich history. In this new rising neo-Pentecostalism, wrought devastation not do a particularly good job volume, editors Kevin Lewis of generational change, just in Guatemala but across of protecting Guatemalans O’Neill and Kedron Thomas and, above all, of the pre- the Americas. Nonetheless, either. In fact, the Guatema-

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 61 book talk

lan state has long been kept and for this it merits praise. weak by design, undermined It would be a stronger book Indigenous Lands by tight-fisted oligarchy and, if it included contributions more recently, by parallel on some of the most integral A Review by Theodore Macdonald powers linked to military and features of the post-conflict narcotrafficking interests. landscape: narcotrafficking If this neoliberal polyarchy and parallel powers; the chal- Mexico’s Indigenous fails to keep a social contract lenges of postwar policing; Communities: Their Lands with the Guatemalan people, the proliferation of foreign- and Histories, 1500-2010, it is because the democratic funded NGOs; or perhaps the by Ethelia Ruiz Medrano, transition of the mid-1980s adoption industry, that con- (University Press of was engineered by the mili- troversial commodity chain Colorado, 2010 ). tary as a counterinsurgency connecting not only country strategy—it was designed to to city, but city to world. Mexico’s Indigenous Com- save face before an interna- That said, one book can- munities: Their Lands and tional chorus of lenders and not be expected to stand in Histories, 1500-2010 lives human rights critics, not to for an entire field of inquiry; up to its ambitious title. save Guatemalans. It is no other writers must rise to the In only 291 pages of dense near-encyclopedic history, Ruiz Medrano orders an enormous corpus of facts Citizens have improvised a wide array of and arguments to provide interactive indigenous coping strategies to deal with everyday a Post-Conquest review agency with State agencies, of indigenous land loss not simple resistance and life in Guatemala City. and imaginative efforts certainly not passive ac- to control it. The lengthy quiescence. As the 510 year bibliography includes history progresses, the In- historical accident that the city’s formidable challenge. original findings from dians, of course, lose nearly state’s civilian institutions are Guatemala City’s is a “beauty Seville’s Archive of the all of their land and most as weak, underfunded, and of witches,” as Paul Theroux Indies, builds on major control over its resources. vulnerable to infiltration by writes, and despite the capi- writers on Mexico’s social However, the period is organized crime as they are. tal’s violence and inequality and economic history, punctuated by dignified And because the state has it remains a vital, fascinating cites comparative cases arguments substantiated by betrayed the vast majority locus of Central American from other part of Latin primordial land claims. The of its population over and life past and present. “The America, and the details manner of this indigenous over again throughout the city is not dead,” as Levenson the author’s ethnographic argument—primordial evi- past two centuries, it is little notes in her contribution to research of contemporary dence expressed symboli- wonder that citizens turn to Securing the City, and though land struggles in Guerrero cally and visually—is the ad-hoc, “privatized” survival its epitaph has been written and Oaxaca. The text does book’s second thread. The strategies in order to carve many times over, it is the not engage the reader in Pueblos use codices, maps, out some semblance of func- responsibility of scholars, ac- an “easy read,” but rather, and other symbolic visual tional lives. tivists, and policymakers alike provides a reference work devices, in many cases ob- The editors of Securing to refrain from consigning it that will be useful for years tained by the author, that the City are to be applauded to a premature death. to come. serve, as Ruiz Medrano for working to shatter com- Running through this consistently emphasizes, to mon narratives that pin the Kirsten Weld is the Florence history are two threads. “negotiate” land rights with blame for Guatemala’s urban Levy Kay Fellow in Latin One is the persistent local authorities and the violence on “delinquents,” ur- American History at Brandeis indigenous effort to engage Crown. ban gangs, rural lynch mobs, University. She is currently Spanish and, later Mexican, These are not simple or other such bogeymen. completing a book manu- authorities in negotiations reactions or spontaneous The work also dismantles script on the 2005 discovery over land and principles protests, but patterned the imagined boundaries of Guatemala’s National of land rights. Here the exercises of agency to between city and country, Police Archives. author’s emphasis lies in demonstrate land claims.

62 ReVista spring | summer 2011 book talk

The Indians did, after all, permanent land holdings. It governments, [the Indi- lands as well. The idea that lose most of their lands, is easily and cynically argued ans] lost the protection the such new freedoms could be but the book illustrates an that the Crown’s relatively monarchy had given them by used simply to shift lands imaginative flow of persistent benevolent behavior was virtue of their special juridi- to non-indigenous peoples legal actions and changing little more than an effort to cal status. With the abolition was certainly not lost on the concepts of law. While the weaken the increasing pow- of a special Indian court, Pueblos, and Ruiz Medrano’s author appropriately lays the ers of the colonial elites. With the Indians were henceforth long review of their efforts to blame for land losses on the that in mind, the book could placed on the same legal retain Ejidos is testimony to locus of power—Spanish and, have been improved through footing as other social and indigenous resourcefulness. later, Mexican governments— more discussion of the many ethnic groups, divested of The final chapter reviews two the text is pleasantly free of legal and philosophical de- the protection of a “paternal- cases—one from Guerrero blame on the current bête bates that took place in Spain istic” monarchy—however and another from Oaxaca. noir—neoliberalism— which during this period. Nonethe- much such protection would Each features a strong local has replaced “dependency less, Ruiz Medrano presents have been confined to the indigenous figure that draws theory” as the “explain all” the progressive demise of realm of legislation.” 19th on history and visual imagery that often masks the com- formal Colonial land rights century Indians were now to inspire local citizens. plex interrelations and in a manner that parallels independent “citizens,” not What comes across in this understandings that provide Charles Gibson’s classic study subjects clustered in commu- richly detailed book is the a modicum of indigenous “The Aztecs Under Spanish nities. But while they could sense that while great losses agency. Rule” while taking the reader no longer be thrown to the have occurred, they have not The first two chapters far closer into specific cases lions, they were left rela- come at the price of indige- review legal and land tenure and, again, showing how tively unarmed to face the nous dignity nor the destruc- history of the 16th to 18th communities continued to wolves. Again Ruiz Medrano tion of the many argu- centuries. They provide a document individual cases chronicles imaginative efforts ments made though careful detailed review of, on the one through the ingenious use of to overcome that weakness, manipulation of indigenous hand, a “clash of civilizations” dramatic codices and maps but the outcome proves little symbols. As such, the sym- in which, at least from the as evidence. substantive indigenous self- bols are useful negotiating perspective of the Spanish The Colonial period intro- determination in arenas such tools as well as a mirror onto Crown, there is basic respect, duced diseases that may have as land and land rights. which indigenous peoples illustrated by complex legal been the most devastating to The most insidious project a sense of sense of self arrangements created to Mexico’s indigenous popula- freedom of the 19th century and history. order relationships. Likewise, tion, but Ruiz Medrano’s granted to the Pueblos was we see arguments accepted next chapter shows that the the freedom from themselves, Theodore Macdonald is and based on indigenous revolutionary and liberal particularly with regard to a Fellow at the University history and geography, as 19th century was perhaps the what was seen as suffocating Committee on Human Rights illustrated by the complex most destructive to the social and anachronistic customs Studies, and a Lecturer in codices (which would be fiber and lands that held of land tenure. Communal Social Studies at Harvard far more impressive if the that cloth together. Much of lands, with their inability University. In 2009, he co- original colors had been what occurred was seen as to alienate individual plots, edited the volume Manifest printed). However much the liberating the Indian from were inconsistent with the Destinies and Indigenous negations are imbalanced by his childlike protected status. liberal Enlightenment no- Peoples (DRCLAS/Harvard the Christians’ invocation of Though realized in a some- tions of freedom to “im- University Press). He also God-given powers through what schizophrenic and on/ prove” ones individual self. undertook the ethnographic such tools as Papal Bulls, off manner, the Pueblos were So communal lands are research and subsequently there is a sense that, at the provided with opportunities provided with legal mecha- served as witness for the highest levels diplomacy as for local governance and a nisms whereby individuals plaintiff in the precedent- well as power is at work. On degree of local legal control. can convert usufruct hold- setting 2001 indigenous land the other, somewhat more But Ruiz Medrano empha- ings into private properties. and natural resource rights soiled, hand, local level Span- sizes that “…as a result of As with the US Dawes Act case, Awas Tingni vs. Nicara- ish behavior was a simple legislation passed first by the of that time, the individual gua, heard, and determined series of efforts to increase Cadiz Cortes government acquired not simply his own in favor of the community, personal wealth, exploit and then by successive liberal lands, but he would help before the Inter-American indigenous labor, and obtain and conservative national to break up his neighbors’ Court of Human Rights.

drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline ReVista 63 reader forum

to structure some in-class policy in Central America. I 2) The “multicultural, pluri- exercises around particu- still have posters on my office ethnic and multilingual” lar groups of essays. So I’m wall from that time, includ- reality of Guatemala as rec- writing to enquire about ing one about the 40,000 ognized by the peace accords the possibility of obtaining disappeared in Guatemala. should be focused as our multiple copies of the issue to Prof. Henry Cohen, primary political challenge use in class with my students. Director, International & and an element that enriches I’d really love for students Area Studies Program, our society. It is unfortunate to be able to experience this Kalamazoo College however, to see political ac- publication in its physical, (MA, Harvard, 1962) tivists apply these principles print form: both because as a way to clash against the the design is so superb and ladino population to meet because this is a case where I The fall/winter 2010 ReVista their political agenda. The think the total impact of the offers an extensive number excessive political maneuver- guatemala issue is even greater than the of articles on Guatemala that ing on the part of certain legacies of violence sum of its parts. mainly focus on the violence politicians is aggravating the Lara Putnam that we suffered during the indigenous population to a Dear June, Associate Professor guerilla warfare and the pres- point where they lose more I’m writing now with of History ent situation of violence. Due than what they gain, produc- regard to the most recent University of Pittsburgh to the importance of these ing a vicious circle that will issue of ReVista, “Guatemala: articles, and mainly the piece end up perpetuating their Legacies of Violence,” which Editor’s Note: We welcome “Indigenous Rights and the impoverished condition. is just absolutely spectacu- requests for classroom use of Peace Process” by Santiago 3) The Agreement 169 of the lar. It’s visually beautiful, ReVista as long as supplies Bastos, I submit my com- International Labor Orga- the scholars are perfectly last. Payment is welcome, but ments for your consideration: nization (ILO) calls for a chosen, and the range of not required. “consulta” to be conducted topics covered gives a truly— 1) The implication that pres- at the time decisions or ap- painfully—complete picture ent violence in Guatemala provals that may affect their of the challenges confronting Dear Editor, is an inherited consequence communities are taken by Guatemala today. The Guatemala issue of of the period when we had the central government. This It happens that in the ReVista is wonderful and I guerilla warfare, or that it is process however, is not a ref- spring semester I am want to congratulate you and racially inspired is not cor- erendum by the indigenous teaching a survey course in Edelberto Torres-Rivas on it. rect. Present violence in Gua- populations that would allow Modern Latin American his- During 1982 to 1990, I was temala is primarily due to the them to approve or disap- tory here and had designed a member of the Kalamazoo lack of institutional authority prove any project. In reality the course to be capped by a group of CISPES, a Central on the part of the govern- the “consulta” is to a great single-nation case study — America solidarity organiza- ment to establish a profes- extent a professional poll that Guatemala—using Victoria tion that worked on human sional police force and justice illustrates the primary needs, Sanford’s Buried Secrets. I rights issues not only in El system to capture and punish concerns, limitations, opin- also have designed the course Salvador, but also in Nicara- delinquents, particularly ions, realities, and priorities with a focus on the uses of gua, Honduras and Guate- those organized as “maras” of the indigenous population history in contemporary mala. We were quite involved (gangs). And if we add to this affected by a given project, to writing and education. So of with a U.S.-based Guate- problem the colossal effect of be taken into account by the course I am now going to re- malan human rights orga- narcoactivity penetration in government and by the inves- work entirely the last weeks nization, educating citizens our police forces, our judicial tor to assist and better serve of the course to incorporate about what was happening system and even in high the needs and interests of its this issue of ReVista as a key in that country. In fact, one ranking government officials, neighboring inhabitants, and teaching resource. summer we went to 5,000 we are faced with a lethal prevent any harm. I’ll assign students to houses in Kalamazoo talking combination of elements that Jorge Asensio Aguirre read the online versions of to residents and handing out corrupt our system and allow Lawyer and Consultant the articles, but I also want literature about U.S. foreign criminals to run rampant. Guatemala City, Guatemala

64 ReVista fall 2010 | winter 2011 Journalists Mary Jo McConahey, author of Maya Roads, and Nancy McGirr, director of Fotokids in Guatemala, show a group of Salvadoran journalism students a T-shirt often worn by foreign correspondents in the 1980s: “Don’t Shoot! I’m a Journalist.”

San Juan River (Nicaragua-Costa Rica border) NBC News crew: Cecilia Alvear, Producer, Mike Boettcher, correspondent, Alexis Triboulard soundman, Hermes Muñoz cameraman. The photos on a canoe in the San Juan River were shot by Bill Gentile also in 1984 soon after Cero and his Contras withdrew from San Juan del Norte. This was shortly before the bombing at La Penca in which several journalists were killed or injured.

Guerrilla at checkpoint, El Salvador 1983

Television crew in Havana

Foreign correspondents try to keep up with Commandante Cero— Eden Pastora—in Nicaragua 1984, when Cero took over San Juan del Norte. Two of the journalists are Rod Norland, now in Kabul with the New York Times and Nieman Foundation Board member Cecilia Alvear, then of NBC News.

artwork by ricardo trotti; Photos (except for top left) courtesy of Cecilia Alvear