--- title: The Deadly Job of Drug War Correspondent | TIME description: In Juarez, Mexico, journalists covering the drug wars are gaining credibility from the public and death threats from the cartels canonical: https://time.com/video/q7RStDB2/ og:title: The Deadly Job of Drug War Correspondent og:description: In Juarez, Mexico, journalists covering the drug wars are gaining credibility from the public and death threats from the cartels og:url: https://time.com/video/q7RStDB2/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/q7RStDB2/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Deadly Job of Drug War Correspondent twitter:description: In Juarez, Mexico, journalists covering the drug wars are gaining credibility from the public and death threats from the cartels twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/q7RStDB2/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The Deadly Job of Drug War Correspondent > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Deadly Job of Drug War Correspondent [Watch (HLS stream): The Deadly Job of Drug War Correspondent](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/q7RStDB2.m3u8) (4:26)  _Published 2009-05-12. In Juarez, Mexico, journalists covering the drug wars are gaining credibility from the public and death threats from the cartels_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:09 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Know Right Know: Flakka, The New Deadly Drug](/video/JffC01h2/) ### Know Right Know: Flakka, The New Deadly Drug [Leader of Zeta Drug Cartel Captured](/video/FFAlnTCu/) ### Leader of Zeta Drug Cartel Captured [Drug War Ambulance](/video/SsAEYOnK/) ### Drug War Ambulance --- ## Transcript >> I've gotten into the point of seeing like seven dead bodies in the same crime scene in one single event. The bodies that are beheaded and hanging from the bridges with the kids looking at this body hanging. >> There's a drug war raging in Juarez, Mexico, a real war with guns and casualties. And perhaps the only job here more dangerous than being a police officer or a drug cartel member is that of a journalist. Their stories and images are telling the grisly truth in this Mexican border town, and it puts them in the cartel's hit list. >> Well here in the city, the news media, the outlets they have a lot of credibility. It's more common that people call the news media first when there's something happening than even the police. >> Reporters for print and TV put themselves at great risks to tell the truth of what's happening in Juarez. Some agreed to tell us why they do it, for their protection their faces are hidden and their voices have been changed. >> Well, when we get to a story or an execution we've had cases when we arrive the gunmen are still there, and that's very dangerous. >> A friend of mine used to work in a local newspaper and he used to cover the police beat, he was killed one morning when he was going out of his house, he was going to take his daughter to school, his daughter he was a witness to the whole crime. >> The dangers of covering a drug war here are not always obvious. Media outlets have to take safety precautions like bulletproof and bomb resistant cars and armed guards carrying assault rifles. The threat of death they say is constant and real. >> Some of our co- workers from different media have left to the US and because they're afraid. >> Everybody who works in the news media knows that the Mafia had unwritten laws of things that you were supposed to respect; in Juarez most of those were broken. They've killed several children; they've gunned them down like if they were delinquents. >> Out of the 1, 600 murders, drug related that were reported in Juarez during 2008 I went to cover at least 800 of those. In 2009 out of the 500 bodies that have been recovered I've easily went to at least 150 or 200. That sometimes it's very common in the past months that in my dreams that I can see the image of me being executed like some of the bodies that I went to cover. >> The reporters witness violence almost daily and in spite of regular death threats from the cartels they keep reporting they say because the story must be told. >> I remember one of the days when I got to work, I went home, my mother was there and we were talking about the violence and she was saying, " I'm worried because something can happen ." I just looked at her in her eyes and I told her, " You know what, you know that it's a choice that I have taken. It's not an easy job, it's not a safe job but if you can put it in some terms I mean somebody has to do it and I just need to keep on reporting what's happening. When you talk about Juarez, it's across from the border, there's something going on and we're trying to say that both to the US and our own country. I've heard several people say the drugs go north, the weapons go south and the bodies stay in Juarez. >> Reporting from Juarez, Mexico for Time. com, I'm Mark Allen Johnson. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Deadly Job of Drug War Correspondent","description":"In Juarez, Mexico, journalists covering the drug wars are gaining credibility from the public and death threats from the cartels","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/q7RStDB2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-05-12T02:27:58.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/q7RStDB2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/q7RStDB2/","duration":"PT4M26S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/q7RStDB2/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```