Breitbart – by ILDEFONSO ORTIZ
MCALLEN, Texas — Cartel gunmen kidnapped and beat the director of a local Mexican newspaper warning him to stop reporting on the ongoing violence. This is the latest attempt by the Gulf Cartel to silence media about the escalating violence in the area immediately south of Texas’ border with Mexico.
A group of gunmen stormed the editorial offices of El Mañana newspaper in Matamoros. The gunmen beat and kidnapped the paper’s director, Enrique Juarez, the Mexican publication reported.
In what had been a rare sight, El Mañana had begun to report on the local shootouts that this week turned several border cities into war-zones. This brazen act of defiance led to a group of gunmen storming the offices of the newspaper on Wednesday going straight to Juarez’s office to kidnap him.
In an effort to fight for his life, Juarez grabbed a small knife from his desk to hold the gunmen at bay but they threw a water jug to disarm him beating him as they dragged him out of the building into a truck as one of the gunmen yelled out “te vamos a quebrar” (we are going to kill you).
Juarez was beaten multiple times and eventually released with the stern warning to stop printing information about the escalating violence south of the border.
El Manana’s sister newspapers in Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo have been the target of various attacks by the cartel in the past in an effort to silence the publication. The constant threat led to the publication steering clear of reporting on the topic and even the editorial board in Nuevo Laredo writing about the gag order placed on them.
Breitbart Texas Managing Director Brandon Darby stated, “This is unacceptable that cartel gunmen attack a news director for covering their violence. Breitbart Texas stands with these journalists and will magnify their reporting by presenting the realities of this violence to a large audience north of the border.” He added, “We will increase the resources dedicated to our coverage of the border and Northern Mexico. We will do all we can to support these journalists.”