Masked Men Threaten Journalist's Life Allegedly on Behalf of Drug Cartel

A video showing masked and armed men claiming to represent Jalisco New Generation cartel threatened a news anchor on television.

Led by Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, aka “El Mencho,” Jalisco New Generation is known as one of Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartels.

The message delivered by one of the masked men, who was sitting at a small desk surrounded by the others, was said to be from Oseguera Cervantes. It was unclear if the person reading the message was Oseguera Cervantes himself.

The masked man complained that Milenio Television, a national cable news channel, was “favoring so-called self-defense groups that are battling the Jalisco cartel in Michoacan state,” according to CBS News.

Azucena Uresti, one of the station’s news anchors, was also singled out. The group threatened to kill her for what they were calling imbalanced coverage, saying that the goal was not to curb “freedom of expression,” but instead urge even reporting.

The seated masked man alleged that the self-defense groups were actually drug traffickers, as only such organizations that could afford the level of weaponry they had, and were in direct conflict with Jalisco in the Western Mexico state of ​​Michoacan, according to the outlet. 

Denying any preferential treatment with their coverage, Milenio Television said in a statement that Uresti had its support and demanded a rapid investigation that guaranteed the anchor’s safety. 

The government supported the statement around journalists' safety, and presidential spokesman Jesús Ramírez Cuevas said on Twitter that the Mexican government "will take the necessary measures to protect threatened journalists and news outlets."

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