A Mexican journalist was murdered. It wasn’t the end of the story, but it was a significant event that could have set the tone for the whole of the story. And the murder of Oswaldo Sanchez, in 1972, was no exception.
The incident took place in September 1972, when the 16-year old Sanchez, of the city of Tijuana, was killed by a Mexican federal police officer. The killing had an enormous impact on Mexican politics, and it had repercussions well beyond the borders of the country. As the following account will reveal, the murder of Sanchez sent a message to all governments, regardless of their political stripes or their ideology.
A Mexican journalist was murdered. It wasn’t the end of the story, but it was a significant event that could have set the tone for the whole of the story. And the murder of Oswaldo Sanchez, in 1972, was no exception.
Sanchez had been a critic of corruption. He was a fierce opponent of the drug cartel. He had run a newspaper that published stories that were critical of corruption and the cartel. For the past year, he had been a vocal advocate for the legalization of the drug trade. And his newspaper had become one of Mexico’s most influential news outlets; the newspaper had, in fact, the highest circulation in the country.
When Sanchez’s newspaper published a story about drug-related murders in the city of Cancun, federal police officers stormed the newsroom. They opened fire and killed him, shooting him twice through the back of the head.
Mexico’s first citizen journalist was a man to watch.
In Mexico, the citizen journalist is a term for those who expose government corruption or the illegal activities of powerful entities. It refers to people who cover crime, the economy, political corruption, natural resources and the like.
Sanchez became a citizen journalist because of the newspaper he wrote for. He called himself “a newsman without fear or prejudice.” That was a phrase that had been coined by the Cuban journalist, Carlos Pellicer, to describe his writing style. Pellicer had been one of the first political journalists in Mexico City and was killed by the government. More than a dozen Mexican journalists had been killed during the last two years. But in 1972, as Sanchez’s death proved, the Mexican citizen journalist had a very long life ahead.
In a country that has recently seen a wave of citizen journalism, Sanchez’s death was certainly a big event. But