The spin on President Felipe Calderon's visit to Juarez

Ciudad Juarez is "in flames," a security official in the border city told Mexican President Felipe Calderon during his visit this week. "Is it possible to win this war as it is currently being waged? Because not even the most powerful army in the world has been able to [win] in urban warfare. ... Iraq is among the examples."

The man behind these strong words is identified as Miguel Garcia in Thursday's lead story in La Jornada, a left-leaning daily in Mexico City that still dutifully covers every move made by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the "legitimate president," as his followers call him. The paper's story covering Calderon's visit on Wednesday played up locals' strong rejection of a data presentation by Calderon's Cabinet that showed, somehow, that violent crime and kidnappings in Ciudad Juarez have decreased since October.

Local officials were outraged and offended, La Jornada reports, arguing that the government's figures of a "fabulous world" in Juarez do not correspond with reality.

Meanwhile, Reforma, a Mexico City daily that is traditionally friendlier to Calderon's conservative party, corporate interests and the wealthy, had a completely different take in its Thursday coverage of the Juarez story.

The paper led with U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual's statements on the "diminishing" of narco warfare along the U.S.-Mexico border (subscription req'd). Reforma reports that Pascual urged Mexican authorities to remain vigilant despite the apparent drop in drug violence. The government's figures on that drop are not questioned, not doubted. (For its part, The Times reports that "killings have only soared" in Ciudad Juarez since Mexico's military took over the streets there.)

The range of spin on the news of the day in the Mexican press is often astounding. On any given story relating to politics or the drug war, a skeptical news consumer must usually consult two or three sources to get a decent sense of what's actually happening.

In El Universal, a paper generally considered to be middle of the road, Calderon is quoted defending his numbers, and his anti-narco strategy. The president, on his third visit to Juarez since the brutal mass slaying of 15 young people in late January, reiterated that the military will continue to be present in Juarez to help curtail the violence that is terrorizing the city.

At least 500 people have been killed in Juarez since the start of the year.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: A demonstrator struggles with police in Ciudad Juarez during President Felipe Calderon's visit. Credit: AP.

Comments

[Tara Murphy]

Mexican leadership, throughout its history, has treated the people like children. Hopefully some of them are waking up.

[d de boer]

Sr. Hernandez,

Are you now afraid that you are no longer beyond the reach of the cartels? If you are, I understand. How many journalists have died trying to report this story? Staggering numbers.

That being said, how does this article help?

State the facts, Sir. Drug violence has been skyrocketing since Calderon has been in power, and needed, in a highly suspect Presidential election, to show his might. State the actual number of dead in this drug war, and compare numbers from 2006 until now. Juarez was not good in 2006, but comparatively, it was a North Vegas suburb. Try to report this story despite the casual and endemic racism to be found in press emanating from the US and Canada.

You will not find support from EA government for your story. But you know that support is there -- from the people of Mexico, who understand and suffer enormously as a result of the byzantine politics in Mexico, and the back room deals made in North America amongst power brokers

You will find support from the very same people who once believed that proximity to the US was a good thing. And who are just beginning to realize that the insatiable American desire for cheap drugs (Yeah, I'm talking to YOU young Hollywood!) and reciprocal deals to send guns across la Frontera is what is killing Mexicans. And Americans now, too.

It's an important story. It cannot wait

Comparing headlines is not enough, and will not help. And identifying newspapers as to their purported political alliance is ridiculous. A millenium long kleptocracy blurs every line.

But the people who live and die within them are real.