Mexican farm activist slain on live radio

[Magón]

Recently, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, an activist leader of hundreds of displaced farmers, Atilano Román, was killed in the city of Mazatlan, while doing his weekly radio show. From reports, it was two men, who murdered him in cold blood.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/13/mexican-activist-killed-radio-show-mazatlan

http://mexicanjournalismtranslationproject.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/silencing-dissent-in-mexico-atilano-roman-slain-leader-of-the-picachos-community-miriam-ramirez-riodoce/

[Bala Perdida]

You think it's drug related? Maybe, the government let this one slide for specific reasons.

[Magón]

A likely possibility. Drug cartels will kill anyone for any reason. But then again, it could have been done by the local government, using the drug cartels, as they've never been known to be who the majority of people can trust, even before all this drug war stuff really started heating up.

[Bala Perdida]

That's what I was thinking. Probably telling hitmen to dispose of the man, and in return they'll look away when the shipment goes through. Something like that, they could have done it themselves though. Although that's not likely ever since cartel activity boomed.

[John Nada]

You think it's drug related? Maybe, the government let this one slide for specific reasons.

Crime and politics have long been intertwined in Mexico, with the police and military involved directly too. I think it could be a political thing.

There was a massacre of leftist students recently too. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/09/mexico-protests-student-teachers-missing This could have been because they protested against the mayor's wife. And there was a murder of a Zapatista teacher a little bit back.

[Hrafn]

There is, in some parts, no effective difference between the police and the cartels.

[Magón]

There is, in some parts, no effective difference between the police and the cartels.

That's the case in pretty much all of Mexico, these days. The only places where cops and cartels have a clear defining line, is when towns like Cheran make their own police forces, made up of locals who are there to actually protect their friends and families, from cartel members, or those backed by cartels.

[Bala Perdida]

They had the autodefensas, but the government started to crack down on them and cartels started to infultrate.