Tag: "crime"

Death in El Salvador

Death in El Salvador

| September 7, 2009 | Comments (1)

The killing of documentary maker Christian Poveda represents a sad loss for a region much in need of greater understanding.

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‘I’ve never been afraid’: Director, recently slain, talks about filming El Salvador’s gangs

‘I’ve never been afraid’: Director, recently slain, talks about filming El Salvador’s gangs

| September 3, 2009 | Comments (2)

Photographer and filmmaker Christian Poveda was shot dead in El Salvador Sept. 2, 2009. He spent more than 16 months, every day, with the mara gangs of San Salvador to make the 2009 documentary “La Vida Loca.” This is footage from an interview conducted by the Los Angeles Times’ Deborah Bonello with Poveda a few [...]

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Christian Poveda, “la Vida Loca” director, killed in El Salvador

Christian Poveda, “la Vida Loca” director, killed in El Salvador

| September 2, 2009 | Comments (1)

Reports have surfaced that French photographer and director Christian Poveda has been shot and killed in El Salvador, possibly by the gangs that his recently released documentary “La Vida Loca (the Crazy Life)” focused on. Reuters reports: Suspected Salvadorean gang members killed French filmmaker Christian Poveda, whose 2008 film “La Vida Loca” crudely depicts the [...]

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Human rights hit the big screen in second film festival

Human rights hit the big screen in second film festival

| August 12, 2009 | Comments (1)

Mexico’s second annual human rights film festival, supported by a number of organizations here including the Mexico branch of Amnesty International, the Ambulante documentary film project and Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission, opens at the end of the week.

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On the road with Mexico’s young military

On the road with Mexico’s young military

| August 7, 2009 | Comments (2)

It was disconcerting to see the age of the soldiers executing Calderon’s stop and search policy.

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Video: Mexican day laborers are ‘Los Bastardos’ in fictional work

Video: Mexican day laborers are ‘Los Bastardos’ in fictional work

| August 7, 2009 | Comments (1)

At first glance, “Los Bastardos” seems a surprising film for a Mexican director to make.

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Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma spotlights Mexico

Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma spotlights Mexico

| August 4, 2009 | Comments (0)

The Dart Center, a Colombia University project for journalists who cover violence, got in touch with me after I published a video report on survival training for journalists in Mexico earlier this year.

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Foreign ramifications of local drug wars

Foreign ramifications of local drug wars

| June 30, 2009 | Comments (1)

It’s not often you see something in the press that makes you think, Yes! I KNOW! But sometimes it happens, and there were two pieces in the media this morning that gave me that sense. The first was this column in the Guardian by George Monbiot, who came back to an issue we touched on [...]

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Video: “Tracing Aleida” director on making the film and Mexico’s “dirty war”

Video: “Tracing Aleida” director on making the film and Mexico’s “dirty war”

| June 29, 2009 | Comments (0)

This is a longer version of an edited interview with the director Christiane Burkhard about her documentary film project, “Tracing Aleida”.

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Journalists reporting, and surviving, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

Journalists reporting, and surviving, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

| June 24, 2009 | Comments (1)

The Committee for the Protection of Journalists reports on journalists working in the northern border town of Ciudad Juarez.

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Nearly 10,000 migrant kidnappings in Mexico in 6 months

Nearly 10,000 migrant kidnappings in Mexico in 6 months

| June 17, 2009 | Comments (0)

During that period, 9,758 migrants were deprived of their liberty. More than 60 percent of kidnappings involved groups of migrants travelling together. The majority of those kidnapped were from Honduras (67 %). ¡8% oer the victims were from El Salvador and 13% from Guatemala.

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First Stop in the New World: Taxi Ride

First Stop in the New World: Taxi Ride

| June 12, 2009 | Comments (0)

This is the final in our series of extracts from David Lida’s book “First Stop in the New World,” which has just come out in paperback. The book is divided between long chapters that deal with topics of great importance in Mexico City (crime, inequality, food, sex and even shopping), and shorter chapters that provide [...]

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BorderReporter: God's Gonna Cut You Down

BorderReporter: God's Gonna Cut You Down

| June 11, 2009 | Comments (1)

What happened here last week was a sheer massacre.

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First Stop in the New World: the Reality of Crime

First Stop in the New World: the Reality of Crime

| June 11, 2009 | Comments (1)

This week MexicoReporter.com is publishing a series of extracts from David Lida’s book “First Stop in the New World,” which has just come out in paperback. The book is divided between long chapters that deal with topics of great importance in Mexico City (crime, inequality, food, sex and even shopping), and shorter chapters that provide [...]

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Fiction series on Mara Salvatrucha wins Webby Award

Fiction series on Mara Salvatrucha wins Webby Award

| June 8, 2009 | Comments (0)

“The Ten Commandments of la Vida Loca, ” received the Webby Award for best drama series during a weekend ceremony in New York.

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Video: Training Day

Video: Training Day

| May 30, 2009 | Comments (1)

My breath is tearing out of my lungs and my leg muscles are screaming for a reprieve. I just scaled a 60-degree hill coated in thorny brambles and poisonous plants whilst being pounded by rain. In the dark. I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but it did. Later that night, my fellow journalists and I were kidnapped by masked guerillas who jumped onto our bus.

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Video: Mexican journalists put through their survival paces

Video: Mexican journalists put through their survival paces

| May 29, 2009 | Comments (1)

A couple of non-profits got together and ran a course just outside Mexico City this month for 18 journalists living and working here.

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Film chronicles woman's search for identity after Mexico's 'dirty war'

Film chronicles woman's search for identity after Mexico's 'dirty war'

| May 15, 2009 | Comments (1)

This week saw the cinema premiere here in Mexico of a film documenting the real-life story of Aleida Gallangos Vargas, the child of political activists who disappeared during the country’s “dirty war.”

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Video: Military’s drug museum shows narco tactics

Video: Military’s drug museum shows narco tactics

| May 11, 2009 | Comments (0)

The installation was designed as an educational tool for military personnel who have been tasked with fighting Mexico’s narco-trafficantes and organized crime networks.

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Video: Killer women prepare for U.S. debut

Video: Killer women prepare for U.S. debut

| April 23, 2009 | Comments (0)

The blood-soaked drama is about to hit U.S. TV screens, and the first episode of the first series goes out April 23 on Univision.

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Obama starts a new era in Mexico drive-by

Obama starts a new era in Mexico drive-by

| April 16, 2009 | Comments (0)

I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it into work this morning. Not because of Mexico’s overloaded public transport system, but because U.S President Barack Obama was expected to arrive on his first visit to Mexico here in the country’s capital.

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Video: ‘La Vida Loca’ captures daily reality of El Salvador’s gangs, or maras

Video: ‘La Vida Loca’ captures daily reality of El Salvador’s gangs, or maras

| April 10, 2009 | Comments (2)

“La Vida Loca” reflects a depressing and hopeless reality. The documentary follows some of the members of ”la dieciocho,” the so-called 18th Street gang in a poor San Salvador neighborhood.

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