Chronicle of a War Foretold

Violence Begets Violence in Mexico, With No New Story in Sight

On June 8, 2005, Alejandro Dominguez, the head of the chamber of commerce in Nuevo Laredo–a busy Mexican city on the Texas border–took office as the city’s chief of police. He was an outsider to law enforcement, brought in by the mayor as an honest broker. Six hours later, he was dead, shot 40 times as he walked to his car. Five days later, Mexico’s then-president, Vicente Fox, sent in the army and national investigative police, who arrested the city police force en masse, taking all 700 of them into custody, …

by Konstantin Kakaes | January 4, 2012

Commuting to Drug War’s Stalingrad

Northern Mexico’s Mayhem Has Stayed on That Side of Border

by Angela Kocherga | August 17, 2011

Being a war correspondent has its downsides. I’ve seen a headless body left hanging from an overpass at dawn, and covered several mass murders. At a drug rehab center I …

In Arizona, Pondering Mexico’s Image

Journalists Discuss Mexico’s Evolution and Its Relationship With the U.S.

June 3, 2011

Arizona might not seem like the most logical location for an event called “Telling Mexico’s Stories.” After all, the state is home to the nation’s toughest law against illegal immigration, …

Covering Mexico, Drugs and All

Journalists Explore the Challenges of Reconciling Divergent Narratives

June 1, 2011

The number of reporters and photographers murdered in Mexico rose in 2010 for the third straight year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which said that Mexican authorities “appear …

If Mexico Were a Movie …

Pondering Our Neighbor's Saga

May 31, 2011

Americans don’t know what to make of Mexico, in part because they only tend to hear fragmentary snippets of their neighbor’s national odyssey: economic development amidst persistent poverty: drugs and …

Bursting the Bubble and Minding the Border

The Neglected 'Third Space'

by Cecilia Ballí | November 28, 2010

To call the U.S.-Mexico border home, as I do, is to live in a kind of no man’s land, at least as far as Washington and Mexico City are concerned. …

drug war