Mexico drug-trafficking and journalism: silence or death?

Four speakers and therefore four different perspectives filled the Sala Raffaello auditorium in Hotel Bruffani on today’s afternoon. The atmosphere in the room suddenly became different, when loud voices and strong arguments bribrate from the four people ahead the crowd.

Cecilia Rinaldi was the moderator, alternating the speech between these authors in two rounds of discussion. They shared their passion for journalism but also the fact that each have written a book about the narcotraffic problem in Mexico.

First was Anabel Hernández, native mexican. “Silence or death- she started- journalists could either chose the challenge or let it pass by fear.”
“ This situation is important because from Italy and Europe, things seem to be far away, who cares what happens in Mexico?… but the narcotraffic industry is nowadays the biggest illegal business in the whole wide world”

Followed by Cinthia Rodríguez also a mexican, who claimed that the narco’s business has made thier way in more than sixteen countries, it has become the world’s monster causing blood baths, executions, kidnappings and more. “Narcotraffic criminals do not respect nationalites, gender or age”, she pointed.

A male voice took of the stands. Malcom Beith, an american who lived in Mexico and interacted with people from the affected cities, emphasized that “Chapo Guzmán”, a very famous drug dealer, is a pure symbol, an urban myth of something a lot bigger and corrupted than just one person.

“In Ciudad Juarez there is only one value: money” emphasized, Genaro Carotenutto, an italian author who came with a perspective about the absence of opportunities and hard living conditions that put the mexicans in the claws of the drug dealers..

Finally the moderator announced the clousure. As a matter of synthetize she commented that they all share the fact that no country is exempt from falling into the narcotraffic problem. Italy itself as Hernández mentioned, was taken in the past by the mafia; also she signalized the role of the civilians and the journalistic community by denouncing and raising the voice in order to save other countries from this slow and painfull death.