At the opening
ceremony of the 64th World Newspaper Congress and 19th World Editors Forum in
Kiev, Ukraine on September 3, 2012, Mexican journalist Anabel Hernández was
awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World
Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). Ms. Hernández was
honoured for her commitment and dedication to investigative reporting that
revealed corruption at the highest levels of Mexican society and has placed her
life in danger. Her recent book, ‘Los Señores del Narco/The Drug Lords’,
details the complicity between organised crime and high-ranking authorities,
from government officials to the police, military and prominent businessmen. As
a result, she has made herself the target of death threats from both state and
non-state actors. Her story is told in her acceptance speech reproduced below.
A
year and nine months ago I’d never have believed that I’d be here today. Every
morning I’m surprised by life and open my eyes on a burnt out country where in
six years more than 60,000 people have been executed by the government or
organised crime. Their eyes will never open again. I’m surprised by being able
to embrace my children, my mother and my siblings in a country where more than
18,000 children, teenagers and parents have disappeared in a phony war against
drug trafficking. Their families will never embrace them again.
In December 2010 when the book ‘The Drug
Lords’, a product of five years of journalistic investigation, was published, I
was sentenced to death by high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Public
Security of president Felipe Calderón’s government for having exposed his
relationship with kidnappers and the Sinaloa Cartel, the most powerful cartel
in the world according to the United States’ Drug Enforcement Administration.
Since the 1st of December 2010 a price has been put on my head and from that
day I decided to fight for my life. Since then I have been on the verge of
losing the things that I love the most. My family was attacked, my sisters have
been harassed in their homes by armed thugs, my information sources featured on
the list of missing persons, have been killed or unjustly imprisoned. Every day
I live with this weight in my heart, never knowing when my time will be up.
The world looks to a burnt out Mexico but
never quite understands what goes on here and consequently does not realise
that this could happen anywhere on earth. I have had the chance to talk with
journalists from all over the world who have come to Mexico over the course of
recent years to experience the adrenaline of the safari of terror and death.
They come in search of shootings, corpses and pieces of bodies; they count the
hangings and interview hit men, but never get to the bottom of the problem.
The Nobel Prize for Literature winner, Mario
Vargas Llosa once said that there existed in Mexico a ‘perfect dictatorship’.
In Mexico today there is a ‘perfect criminal dictatorship’. The most repressive
regime of all time is that of the power of organised crime that has blended
with Mexico’s political and economic power, thanks to a corrupt and unpunished
national system. This combination of a drowsy society divided by indifference
or terror makes for the perfect milieu for this perverse regime to maintain
itself and grow. To think this, say this or write this is more dangerous in
Mexico than being a drug-trafficker or working for them.
This is the power that has murdered thousands
of innocent children, youths, women and men. This is the power that has seized
areas of Mexican territory and subjected the population to a regime of terror,
extortion, kidnapping and impunity. This is the power that obstructs freedom of
expression, the power that has executed 82 journalists over the course of a decade,
has caused more than 16 to disappear and threatened hundreds, such as myself.
Eighty percent of these cases have taken place under the government of the
current outgoing president, Felipe Calderón.
This is the power that ensures that crimes
against journalists go unpunished. So as to wash their hands before public
opinion and the international community, the government of Mexico, which is
currently considered the most dangerous place on earth to work as a journalist,
claims to have created a prosecution office to protect journalists and resolve
cases of their murder. This office has done nothing but conceal the consent of
federal and local governments in the murder of journalists. Its budget has been
reduced by up to 74%, an indication of governmental interest, and 90% of cases
remain unpunished. In only one of every ten cases has the alleged perpetrator
been jailed.
The crisis within Mexico with regard to
freedom of expression has been devastating. The media are afraid and preserve
their economic interests with the government, and barely fight back when their
journalists are killed, are threatened or disappear. There is inaction in part
due to a lack of solidarity in the union and among the dynamic media egotists
that well you know, but also because the government has criminalised murdered
journalists in general, as well as anyone who tries to defend them. Family
members have no way out; they collect pieces of tortured and dismembered
journalists who have been dumped in rubbish sacks. They must be quiet and keep
their heads down when the infamous government, with no evidence whatsoever,
claims that the journalist was involved in trafficking.
A year and nine months ago, I understood that
it was not enough to survive this barbarity. To feel the breeze blowing on my
face, to breathe clean air and see the smiles of my beloved children is not
enough. A life in silence is not life anywhere on earth. To live in silence
with regard to how corruption, crime and impunity continue to empower
themselves in my country is also to die. I continue to denounce the decay of
Mexico and the collusion of politicians, public servants and high-level
businessmen with Mexican drug cartels. Today Mexican society is in need of
brave and honest journalists who are ready to fight and I believe that the
international community and world media share this responsibility to deeply
consider the reality of the situation in Mexico and assist us in achieving our
goals. Without freedom of expression, there is no possibility of justice or
democracy.
Today, you award me with the Golden Pen of
Freedom. I never expected any prize in exchange for my work. I dedicate and
symbolically award this prize to all the Mexican journalists whose voices have
been silenced by death, forced disappearance or censorship. I also dedicate it
to all those Mexican journalists who daily continue to set an example in their
duty to inform and denounce at whatever cost.
I will fight until my last breath, even if it
is a small example, so that as journalists we are not brought to our knees
before the drug state. I don’t know how many days, weeks, months or years I
have left. I know that I am on the blacklist of very powerful men who will go
unpunished with their pockets full of money from drug bribes and a guilty
conscience for their unmentionable acts. I know that they are awaiting their
moment to carry out their threats at little political cost. I know that I have
nothing but the truth, my voice and my work as a journalist to defend myself
with.
If one day it happens, remember me like this,
upright. I do not want to be another number on the list of dead journalists. I
want to be among the statistics of journalists who fought to live.
It’s true, as Mexicans we are responsible for
our own disgrace, but I hope that the international community will not continue
to be indolent before the empire of the Mexican drug state, which will not be
resolved by the end of the administration of Felipe Calderón. I hope they will
protect their borders and economies against this expanding power and give
neither shelter nor protection to those responsible, be they ex-presidents,
presidents, businessmen or drug-traffickers.
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