Borderland Beat

by Alex Marentes

  The ride on working on the Borderland Beat Project had just began and it was going to be a bumpy ride, something that I never expected. But nothing comes easy and nothing ever comes without risk. Like they say when you are playing with fire, sometime you just get burned.

  Danger to bloggers reporting on the Cartel violence

  Borderland Beat along with other blogs started to grow in popularity and were the “to go” source for news on the Mexican drug cartels. Many journalists were getting killed in Mexico. Some used Borderland Beat as a platform to report cartel activity that they could not report in the Mexican main stream media for fear of retaliation from organized crime.

  Reporters would be targeted many times for naming cartels members or for refusing to report specific content requested by cartels. Mexico would become the most dangerous place for journalists. Many were executed by cartels, there is a lot of documentation in BB covering the danger of reporting about organized crime in Mexico.

  Around January of 2010 the journalist Bladimir Antuna, of the El Tiempo newspaper based out of Durango was abducted, tortured and strangled. He had been receiving threats, and at one point had been getting police protection, but he continued to report on the cartel violence. He had said that he was not afraid of dying but was afraid of being captured alive and tortured. His killers had written on his body "this happened to me for providing information to the military and writing too much." There were signs of him being tortured while alive following his death. In Mexico it is rare that culprits of these executions get arrested.

  The LA Times published an article saying it best:

  “Often, the traffickers demand coverage glorifying their exploits, or they may want some of their acts concealed, and they make those desires known to journalists as well.

  ‘If you don't print a narco message from one group, they will punish you. Or the other side will punish you if you do publish it,’ said one Durango editor who, like many people interviewed for this story, did not want to be identified. ‘Or the government will punish you for printing anything. You don't know where the threat is going to come from.’

  ‘Impunity creates a vicious circle,’ said Alberto Brunori, the senior U.N. official in Mexico for human rights. ‘You have to break the circle or we do not get out of this. You can't just keep having dead journalists turn up.”

  Many journalists and media outlets had stopped reporting all together on the cartel violence in Mexico for fear of being killed. But you can’t blame them. Some journalists have no choice but to get on the cartel payroll and report on events that the cartels dictate. On March 11, 2010 I published a post on Borderland Beat titled “War on Information in Mexico.”

  “The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, said it is aware some journalists are working for cartels.

  "We know this is happening. It is a consequence of the huge level of influence these criminals exert," said Carlos Lauria, the committee's senior coordinator for the Americas.

  Desperate to spread news of the new outbreak of violence, people in Mexico have turned to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to post cell phone videos of shootouts and report suspicious activity.

  "One of the fundamental human rights has been taken away in some parts of Mexico and the federal government is not speaking out about it," said Alberto Islas, an independent security analyst in Mexico City.

  Some honest reporters choose not to report the violence out of fear for their safety. Cartel attacks have made Mexico one of the world's most dangerous countries for the media, the CPJ says, 30 journalists have been killed in Mexico since December 2006 when Felipe Calderon assumed the presidency to the year 2010. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission puts the number of murdered journalists at 66 between 2005 and 2010, in additional to 12 reporters that have disappeared.

  So-called narco-reporters may be at an even greater risk of getting caught up in the turf wars. Five reporters suspected of working for the Gulf cartel went missing two weeks ago in Reynosa.

  "We don't know who they angered but it wasn't because of their journalism. Two of the reporters hadn't

  published anything in months," said a colleague of the missing journalists.

  Local politicians say the Gulf cartel, which controls a third of narcotics shipments into the United States, is keeping its war with the Zetas as quiet as possible to avoid provoking army deployments that could disrupt its smuggling operations.

  "The Gulf cartel's message is: there's nothing happening here," said a town councilor in Rio Bravo next door to Reynosa. "The hitmen even pick up their dead after gunfights so there's no evidence of what's going on," he added.”

  Journalists were starting to be afraid of reporting the violence or naming any of the cartel members. This caused many journalists to use anonymity in reporting the violence in Mexico. That is how I started reaching out to them and giving some of them a platform to report on Borderland Beat.

  Borderland Beat continued to report on the threats to journalists and bloggers. On November 14, 2011 a post titled "Mexican Drug Cartel Kills Blogger" that brought to light the dangers of reporting on the drug cartels while living among them.

  Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel killed yet another blogger, continuing its unrelenting war against persistent citizen journalists fighting the underground organization on social media at any cost.

  Zetas’ latest victim, a man who moderated the Nuevo Laredo En Vivo whistle-blowing website, was found beheaded at a busy intersection with a nearby note reading, “This happened to me for not understanding that I shouldn’t report on the social networks.”

  The blogger is the fourth citizen journalist in the last months to suffer the same fate as others reporting on Zetas’ activities. In September, the cartel posted similar signs next to two men’s bodies warning, “This is going to happen to all Internet snitches. Pay attention, I’m watching you.”

  The Zetas also threatened media outlets with unpleasant consequences unless they report news as directed, prompting citizens to read blogs for more reliable information.

  The high cost of speaking out against Zetas online has deterred many from attempting to do so, including Anonymous hacktivists, though some continue to resist.

  On November 1, the collective announced #OpCartel, a plan to unmask 100 of Zetas’ government collaborators in retaliation for their kidnapping of an Anonymous member in Veracruz.

  Security company Strafor, however, warned Anonymous, “Los Zetas are deploying their own teams of computer experts to track those individuals involved in the online anti-cartel campaign, which indicates that the criminal group is taking the campaign very seriously.”

  Anonymous called off the operation on November 2. Two days later, according to the group’s informal spokesman Barett Brown, the cartel returned the kidnapped hacker with a note saying Zetas would kill 10 people for every one collaborator exposed.

  Most Anons decided to back away from the planned attack, but others are still fighting against Zetas. After its moderator’s death, Nuevo Laredo En ViVo posted, “Let’s continue denouncing them, now that we’ve seen it burns them, hurts them. We have to continue. We can’t give in.”

  Others share the same sentiment, like Borderland Beat, a reputedly reliable website that functions like a terrorist cell to prevent its members from learning each others’ identities for safety purposes.

  Blog del Narco, a popular citizen journalist page, has survived because it doesn’t take sides, even allowing Zetas members to post murder videos on its site.

  The online fight against corruption continues, albeit more clandestinely than Anonymous’ planned #OpCartel. But with such high risks, more bloggers may die before Zetas ever topples.

  Mexican Drug War Blogger Risks His Life Daily

  There was a piece that had been reported and published by the Daily Dot, it had also been reposted on BB on November 17, 2011 by yours truly. It was a piece on Ovemex, an administrator and contributor for BB who was at the
time living in the dangerous Gulf Coast region of Mexico.

  When a fourth person turned up dead earlier in 2010 in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo for posts made online about drug cartels, Ovemex was one of the first to report it.

  He was also very aware that his actions could put him in grave danger: He might be the next social media reporter to be brutally killed by Los Zetas, the cartel suspected in the four brutal murders.

  “Of course I am” concerned about my own safety, said Ovemex, who is an administrator of Borderland Beat, a blog that is considered a leading source for news on the Mexican drug war. “But my fear of living life under these conditions indefinitely and my fear of never seeing change—unless we actively participate in the pursuit and creation of it—is much greater.”

  Ovemex, who asked that only his Twitter handle be used when he spoke to the Daily Dot, is part of a network of faceless citizen journalists sharing information about drug cartels.

  Many mainstream media outlets in Mexico have had their drug war coverage silenced, either through threats or bribes, forcing people to Twitter and blogs like Borderland Beat for news about the cartels.

  Unlike the Arab spring uprisings earlier in 2010, information shared on sites like Borderland Beat in Mexico is mainly about day-to-day survival and navigating the most violent cities safely. Ovemex, however, is holding out hope that the grassroots, citizen journalists movement will build into a means of enacting change and put an end to a war that has claimed more than 43,000 lives since 2006.

  “A person on Twitter who retweets info is helping,” Ovemex said. “A person who simply reads everything they can get their hands on is helping.”

  Much as they did with traditional journalists, the cartels have started killing administrators of the crime blogs in hopes of silencing them. In addition to three people killed in September, Rascatripas, an administrator on another crime news site, was killed in November.

  His decapitated body was found with a note saying he was killed for "failing to understand I must not report on social networks."

  “I don't think these killings and threats will have their desired effect—not in the long run,” Overmex said. “Mexico is awakening and wants to speak. We want the truth known. They cannot silence us all, especially on the Internet where fragments of information are continuously and anonymously passed forward over and over again.”

  The anonymous nature of the information-sharing network presents problems as readers try to determine what information is accurate and what information is false.

  As originally reported by the Daily Dot, the cartels have been posting false information on social networks to divert law enforcement away from where they are operating.

  Ovemex said determining which information is accurate and should be passed on is an acquired skill based on trust.

  “There is no science to this—no immediate, definite way of knowing the absolute truth,” he said. “On the Internet you cannot rely on traditional social skills. Trust is a key issue. You cannot see who you are ‘speaking’ or ‘listening’ to, there are no body movements or facial expressions to give hint to their character. Over time you will find those you trust, as well as learn to read signs.

  “You learn to read and comprehend what IS communicated by media, as well as what is NOT. And then you start putting the pieces of the puzzle together,” Ovemex said.

  The better known crime blogs haven’t dipped too far into stories about #OpCorrupcion, a movement by Anonymous to hack Mexican government Web sites as a way of protesting suspect cooperation and corruption. Part of the problem is there is often conflicting information coming from different members of Anonymous, and it is often hard to verify what is accurate and what is not.

  Ovemex declined to speak about Anonymous specifically, other than to say he has been watching their actions in Mexico closely.

  “They are us, we are them. Their power is in anonymity and their numbers,” he said. “We all work, for the most part, with the same idea mind—to create awareness and hopefully change—but that is all we know about them. To me what is important and necessary is for Mexico to unite in this battle.”

  “Everybody knows something,” he said. “The information and truths are out there, you just have to know where to look and how to put it together.”

  A need for Blogs

  There is no more freedom of expression in Mexico. Not only is there risk from the cartels, but also from the government which controls any information about violence. And in the U.S., we do not see what is happening across the border. In most of Mexico most of the important news is not being covered, and the American press isn't covering Mexico the way it should be either.

  Many reporters are not ashamed to say they have backed off their coverage of the violence for their own safety. "We just don't cover the violence anymore; it's just too dangerous for us," said one reporter from a Tamaulipas news outlet. He has reason to fear for his safety, Mexico is the most dangerous country in the world for reporters.

  In essence, the cartels are killing information by killing the messenger. Social media has played a huge role in reporting on the cartel violence in Mexico. This has resulted in cartels targeting bloggers as well as those who try to remain anonymous for their safety. Borderland Beat has led this fight in reporting about cartels, and the contributors have for the most part remained safe by being anonymous. There were some bloggers from other blogs that were identified by the criminal element and ultimately executed in Mexico. This became an issue for some bloggers, especially the ones living in the Mexican crime regions. This was an item with some of the contributors on Borderland Beat:

  After the discovery in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico on November 9, 2011 of the body of the fourth blogger to be killed in the space of a month, for posting online information about drug cartels, The Daily Dot, MSNBC and Der Spiegel each produced an article outlining the dangers such internet activity posed. For comment, The Daily Dot and MSNBC turned to Borderland Beat administrator "Overmex," while Der Spiegel interviewed Borderland Beat contributor "Gerardo." In the interviews, the two bloggers reiterated their determination to continue reporting on the ongoing drug war, and not to be intimidated by the drug cartels' threats.

  Quoting from an article in Bloomberg Businessweek: "To protect contributors, the editors of the blog Borderland Beat, which has a reputation as one of the most reliable sources of information on Mexico's drug violence, say even they don’t know the identity of some of the site's major contributors. Posts are often passed through intermediaries to protect secrecy. "They could be journalists, cops, politicians, maybe even cartel members themselves," says one of the blog's editors, who uses the nickname Buggs."

  For me personally, being the founder and main contributor of Borderland Beat, it was extremely difficult to maintain my anonymity. I was a little bit concerned, but for me it was not very personal or direct, like it was for the collaborators reporting from Mexico. For one, I lived in the U.S., although the cartels could very easily reach out and touch me in the U.S. if they really wanted to. Except that for me, it was a little more complicated than that. I was an active law enforcement officer in the U.S. and was armed 24/7. There was one time, during the time many bloggers were receiving threats, when I did an interview with a media outlet that had discovered my identity.

  My decision to come out of the shadow of Borderland Beat was by design rather than by choice. Someone had to confront the logistics necessary to maintain the project. Also, someone had to talk to people in order to spread the mission of the BB Project. The mission of BB was to report on the cartel war through the internet, print and presentations (interview requests from media). For the first time ever, a collaborator of BB made their presence known on the internet. My thought was if the mainstream media has a source of contact from BB, they will not pursue other members to try to discover their identity.

  It was the first time I did an interview and came out of hiding, primarily because my cover had been blown. I had recei
ved a phone call from a reporter from Texas that knew my real name, place of residence and my profession. It was reported by KRGV News from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, and ultimately published in Borderland Beat on September 16, 2011 titled, “Cartels Threaten Social Media Users in Mexico.”

  “Bloggers and social media users in Mexico aren't letting the cartels intimidate them. They continue to blog, tweet, and post information about the drug war. Two people were found hanging from a bridge this week in Nuevo Laredo with a warning to social media users.

  Alex Marentes, the blogger who runs a website called Borderland Beat, knows he and his bloggers in Mexico could be the next target. He says his mission is more important than the risk.

  The pictures are brutal. The words are brazen. They're a warning to social media users and bloggers. The note mentions three blogs and signed with a Z, perhaps for Zetas.

  “This is the first time we've seen a direct possible tie to cartels targeting bloggers,” says Marentes.

  A man and woman were apparently killed for posting something the Zetas didn't like. Marentes and his Mexican bloggers know they could be targets, too. He says the deaths of these two people are sending fear through the social media community.