MEXICO PAPER, A DRUG WAR VICTIM, CALLS FOR A VOICE

MEXICO CITY -- It was by turns defiant and deferential, part plea and
part plaint, a message as much to the drug gangs with a firm grip on
Ciudad Juarez, the bloodiest city in Mexico's drug battles, as to the
authorities and their perceived helplessness.

"We want you to explain to us what you want from us," the front-page
editorial in El Diario in Ciudad Juarez asked the leaders of
organized crime. "What are we supposed to publish or not publish, so
we know what to abide by. You are at this time the de facto
authorities in this city because the legal authorities have not been
able to stop our colleagues from falling."

In Mexico's drug wars, it is hard to pinpoint new lows as the
atrocities and frustrations mount. But Ciudad Juarez belongs in its
own category, with thousands killed each year, the exodus of tens of
thousands of residents, the spectacle of the biggest national holiday
last week observed in a square virtually devoid of anybody but the
police and soldiers, and the ever-present fear of random death.

The question now is whether anyone there will dare to continue
documenting the turmoil in Ciudad Juarez, a smuggling crossroads
across from El Paso that is battled over by at least two major
criminal organizations.

El Diario's open letter to the city's drug lords and the authorities
it believes have failed to protect the public ran Sunday, the day
after the funeral of Luis Carlos Santiago, 21, a photography intern
at the paper who was shot dead while leaving a shopping mall after
lunch. A car drove up. A barrage of bullets. Mr. Santiago, shot in
the head, died instantly while another intern, who was wounded,
stumbled and dragged himself to safety in the mall and is recuperating.

All along the border, news organizations have silenced themselves out
of fear and intimidation from drug trafficking organizations, but El
Diario had a reputation for carrying on -- and paying a price. One of
its reporters was gunned down two years ago.

Had Mr. Santiago snapped some offending picture? Was it the car he
was driving, which belonged to a friend who happens to be a prominent
state human rights official? Was it related to a run-in with other
young people he reportedly had weeks ago?

The Mexican government, while condemning acts of aggression against
journalists and dismissing the idea of striking truces or negotiating
with criminal organizations, highlighted the theory of the run-in on
Monday, saying state prosecutors were looking at some personal
grievance as the "probable motive."

But officials made no mention of the common calling card of Mexico's
drug gangs: a message left hanging on a street corner warning the
police that they would meet the same fate as Mr. Santiago.

Such investigations have a history of shifting theories and little
resolution. The killing of Armando Rodriguez Carreon, the police
reporter for El Diario shot dead in front of his 8-year-old daughter
in 2008, remains unsolved; the investigation suffered a devastating
setback when the lead prosecutor on the case was killed as well.

"There is a record of impunity in these cases that is frankly
staggering," said Joel Simon, executive director the Committee to
Protect Journalists, which in a report this month chronicled the
deaths and disappearances of more than 30 journalists in the four
years since fighting among the groups intensified.

For its part, El Diario editors sought to clarify that they were not
surrendering to the drug gangs but that they might modify their approach.

While its editorial called for a truce between crime groups and the
media -- noting that "even in war there are rules" that "safeguard
the integrity of the journalists who cover them" -- the paper
insisted on Monday that it would not back down.

"We will not stop coverage," Pedro Torres, the assistant editor, said
in a radio interview. "But we also have to assure ourselves that this
doesn't happen again, because two deaths now is paying too much for
something we didn't ask for. We are going to wait for a reaction not
just from those the column was directed at, but we hope it sounds an
alarm bell in the public's conscience."

Altogether, more than 28,000 people have been killed in the nearly
four years since President Felipe Calderon began his offensive
against the nation's drug organizations, with the gangs escalating
fights over turf and dominance as the federal police and military try
to stamp them out.

As the violence continues, few in the public sphere have proven off
limits to it. On Wednesday, some international organizations,
including the Committee to Protect Journalists, are scheduled to meet
with Mr. Calderon to demand more protection for the journalists who
cover the nation and its drug war, many of whom have succumbed to
self-censorship as a means of survival.

Acts against news organizations this year have included the
kidnapping of four journalists, who were released after one station
broadcast videos that their abductors demanded be played on air, and
a car bomb detonating last month outside a regional office of
Televisa, the leading national network.

Since February 2006, Mexico has had a federal prosecutor in charge of
investigating crimes against journalists. Gustavo Salas Chavez, a
former Mexico City prosecutor, took over the position in February,
but he declined to comment on the Ciudad Juarez case.

Since the special prosecutor's office was formed, it has opened 68
investigations, according to its most recent report. Only one of
those so far has resulted in a conviction.

Elisabeth Malkin and Antonio Betancourt contributed reporting.