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Alert

"Hora Cero" directors and reporters threatened after publishing allegations of Reynosa mayor's corruption

(IPYS/IFEX) - On 9 June 2007, the directors of the newspaper "Hora Cero", from Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, in northern Mexico, reported that they and their reporters have been threatened after publishing information in May and June about alleged acts of corruption by Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca, mayor of the city of Reynosa, in Tamaulipas state. The last incident took place on 2 June, when those making the threats said that there was a bomb at the newspaper's headquarters, which turned out not to be true.

After the publishing of the articles, containing allegations which are backed by testimony from several witnesses as well as documentation, the newspaper received five telephone calls in which executive director Heriberto Deándar Robinson and general editor Héctor Hugo Jiménez were threatened with assault.

On 30 May, Mayor García Cabeza de Vaca criticized the paper's work during a public ceremony on a street near the newspaper, and he incited the public to assault the journalists.

According to Deándar Robinson, two of the reporters were warned to be careful by the mayor's security personnel because they could suffer from reprisals for their articles.