{"id":7434,"date":"2020-12-14T05:15:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T10:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=7434"},"modified":"2020-12-14T05:15:32","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T10:15:32","slug":"theyre-culpable-the-countries-supplying-the-guns-that-kill-mexicos-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=7434","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They\u2019re Culpable\u2019: the Countries Supplying the Guns That Kill Mexico\u2019s Journalists"},"content":{"rendered":"
An expert works at a crime scene in Mexico City on 26 June. Photograph: Pedro Pardo\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of the weapons used in the murders of 119 journalists were imported \u2013 and Mexico\u2019s laws and culture make tracing them impossible.<\/strong>–  Phineas Rueckert from Forbidden Stories and Nina Lakhani<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A collaboration with 24 international media outlets across 18 countries, and coordinated by Forbidden Stories<\/a>, the Cartel Project investigates the global networks of Mexican drug cartels and their political connections around the world.<\/p>\n

It was around daybreak when Mexican crime reporter Luis Vallejo received a call from a local police officer telling him that a bag of human remains had been found in the city of Salamanca where he lives.<\/p>\n

Vallejo had become accustomed to calls like this: in recent years, violence in Guanajuato, the surrounding region, has spiraled to unprecedented levels amid bloody turf wars between rival cartels.<\/p>\n

But when he reached the scene he found Israel V\u00e1zquez, a fellow reporter \u2013 and a lifelong friend of Vallejo \u2013 gasping for breath in a pool of blood. V\u00e1zquez, 31, had been shot 11 times<\/a> by drive-by assailants as he prepared to broadcast live on Facebook. Police found bullet casings from two guns: a 9mm and a .45 caliber.<\/p>\n

V\u00e1zquez, a father of two little girls, died later on 9 November, becoming the third journalist shot dead in 10 days in Mexico \u2013 the most dangerous country in the world for the media<\/a> outside war zones.<\/p>\n

Journalist Israel V\u00e1zquez on assignment in Guanajuato. Photograph: Luis Vallejo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEverything came crashing down on me,\u201d said Vallejo, 32, who was inspired to become a journalist by his friend.<\/p>\n

A few days later, two men linked to the murder were arrested, along with seven other alleged local gang members. According to local news reports, authorities also seized an arsenal of high-caliber weapons from around the world, including a US-made semi-automatic rifle, Israeli and German assault rifles, and a modified semi-automatic shotgun from Turkey.<\/p>\n

Since 2000, almost three-quarters of the 119 journalists murdered in Mexico<\/a>were killed by firearms, an investigation by the Cartel Project has found \u2013 and most of those weapons are imported.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost all of the journalists in Mexico are killed with foreign weapons,\u201d said Laura Angelina Borbolla, a former federal prosecutor in charge of investigating crimes against journalists. More than 90% of the killings remain unsolved.<\/p>\n

An international coalition of journalists, coordinated by the non-profit Forbidden Stories, examined the flow of weapons into Mexico in an effort to understand where the guns are coming from.<\/p>\n

The main findings include:<\/p>\n