MAY 10, 2005
Posted: May 17, 2005
Pedro Pérez Natividad, Primera Hora
HARASSED
An unidentified assailant hurled a homemade bomb into a truck belonging to Pérez, editorial director with the daily Primera Hora, in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. No one was injured in the attack.
Around midnight, an unknown attacker broke the back window of the journalist’s truck and threw in a firebomb, according to local press reports. The truck, which was parked in front of the Perez’s house, sustained serious damages. Pérez was working at the time of the incident. He told CPJ he had not received any prior threats, but said the paper’s crime reporter, Carlos Figueroa, had been threatened recently.
Perez also noted that Guadalupe García Escamilla, a Nuevo Laredo radio reporter gunned down last month in front of her radio station, was also a columnist for Primera Hora.
Pérez has been under police protection since May 12. Tamaulipas state police officers have also been assigned to protect Figueroa, he said.
According to CPJ research, the U.S.-Mexico border has become one of the most dangerous places in Latin America for journalists to do their jobs. Two border journalists were killed in direct reprisal for their work in 2004, CPJ research shows.