Reporters who fled Mexico call on Biden to intervene in violence against journalists

Mexican journalists who fled their home country over increasing violence against their profession and lack of protection from the government are pleading with the Biden administration to intervene.

Juan de Dios García Davish and his wife, María de Jesús Peters, have been raising awareness of the issue of journalist safety in Mexico while trying to rebuild their lives in Arizona. The couple had received countless threats from drug cartels since 2016 in attempts to silence them or extort them for cash, usually by phone.

García Davish, 62, is currently the director of Quadratin Chiapas, a news site that focuses on migration to Mexico from Central America, among other topics. Peters was a correspondent for the national newspaper El Universal until her move to Arizona, according to The Arizona Republic.

The pair decided it was time to leave after the latest threat on May 13, where a man explicitly threatened to kill Peters, García Davish and their daughter if they did not “come to an agreement.”

"The man wanted money, and although he scared me and made me nervous, I didn't fall for his game. I told him to do what he had to do," García Davish told the La Voz/The Arizona Republic in an interview published Monday.

“The first thing I did was see how my daughter was and then I went to file a complaint with the general attorney’s office.”

The authorities promised to send police patrols outside their home. When none came, García Davish began looking for international options.

Ten journalists have been murdered in Mexico so far this year, according to an official list kept by its government. The most recent was on June 28, when Antonio de la Cruz was killed in the state of Tamaulipas.

Even though they have been in the U.S. for less than a month, the couple has spent much of that time in Phoenix, Arizona’s capital, to shed light on the issue of journalist safety.

On June 6, several Democratic members of Congress, including Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva, sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him for an update on Mexico’s protection mechanism to ensure the safety of journalists from threats and attacks, which uses funds from USAID.

“We want to continue being that voice for other colleagues that nobody pays attention to. We want to make it visible that journalists are being murdered,” said García Davish.

“The president (of Mexico) gives (criminals) his blessing so that they can do with us what they want.”

Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said that current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made a constant and clear divide between “good journalism,” which is his ally, and “bad journalism,” which is his enemy.

“When the president says that journalists are corrupt, that they are conservative and that they go against his political agenda, then his followers, who are around 50% of the population, also follow him,” Hooten told The Arizona Republic. He added that many reporters in Mexico are in a very vulnerable situation because they do not have the same support network as Peters and García Davish have.

The letter to the White House also notes how President López Obrador has made it clear “the safety of journalists and protection of free speech is not a priority for his administration” and urged the Biden administration to provide a plan for how it would work with Mexico to improve the situation on the ground and review how U.S. funds intended for the protection mechanism are actually being used.