Pubdate: Tue, 02 Jun 2009 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2009 The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456 Author: Linda Diebel THE MAN WHO OUTRAN DRUG ASSASSINS Mexican Reporter Took Cop's Warning Seriously, Left Town Shortly Before Colleague Gunned Down SURREY, B.C. - Bang-bang. You're dead. That's not exactly how the cop warned crime reporter Luis Najera in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez that he could be assassinated, but that was the intent. The officer was a good contact and, one day last September, he casually brushed past Najera in the street as if he didn't see him, flicked out his hand and whispered: "Aguas!" He didn't even say it, really; it was more a rush of air. The word means "waters," but in Mexican slang, it's "Be careful!" Najera, 38, who wrote about drug trafficking, knew he was getting one last chance to run for his life. He hurried home, packed three suitcases with five changes of clothes and, with his wife and three children, 17, 8 and 2, fled for their lives to Vancouver. He arrived on Sept. 27 to a city he'd never visited, in a country he didn't know, to claim refugee status and begin the battle to stay in Canada. On Nov. 13, 2008, his colleague Armando Rodriguez, 40, from El Diario de Juarez, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen. They blasted his body with eight bullets in front of his home as he prepared to drive his daughter to school in Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Tex. He died at the scene; she was not physically injured. Rodriguez was among eight journalists gunned down last year in Mexico, according to Reporters Without Borders, their deaths attributed to the drug cartels. "This crime specialist was on the front lines of this savage conflict which has made Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists," said a press release from the international agency. Najera grieved for his friend, while knowing it could have been him. Rodriguez ignored personal death threats, as well as the bloody head placed last year on the Journalist's Memorial in Juarez - a message to all. Before his murder, he wrote about two police officers believed executed by narco-gunmen, among 1,300 to die in Juarez drug wars in 2008. Najera ultimately decided he could no longer put the lives of his family at risk, not in a vicious new age of narco-vendettas that reach out to innocent family members. The days of the unchallenged power of the Juarez Cartel are fading. "I knew there wouldn't be another warning," said Najera, intense, with a thin, worried face, wearing glasses that slip down his nose. "This was different. Yes, I feared for my life, but when my wife noticed she was being followed, I knew I was victimizing my family. We were at the point we wouldn't let our kids out to do anything - it was always "No.'" He lives in virtual hiding and was nervous about the exclusive interview with the Toronto Star. Arranged by an intermediary in Mexico, it took place discreetly in our hotel in Surrey, 30 kilometres from Vancouver. He didn't disclose where he lives, the names of his wife and children or the church that is helping him during a process that could take two years or more - and still turn out badly. Yesterday, a spokesman for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada declined to comment on an ongoing case. Najera says flatly he'll be killed if he returns to Mexico. He'd always dreamed about journalism - and basketball. Born in the central city of Guadalajara, he studied journalism at university and worked as a sports and general reporter before spending five years with the attorney-general's office in the state of Chihuahua, where Juarez is located. As press officer, he handled police matters and made vital contacts for his later reporting on cartels and corruption. "Some police thought I was a traitor, others didn't," he said of his career change. One saved his life. He had insider information. Working back and forth across the Mexico-U.S. border, he saw patterns of power and made connections that made people nervous. In his view: "The police are involved with the narcos and the government is passive." The last thing drug lords and their supporters want is attention. Najera broke a story about the existence of a series of mass graves found by police, quoting one officer: "Maybe there are more. Maybe they are in every neighbourhood in this city." Warnings prepared him. He'd had discussions with his wife, sold his Jeep Cherokee and gathered important documents - including his coverage of the cartels - he would need for refugee board hearings. He had always liked Canada from afar and chose Vancouver because he knew a Mexican lawyer there. After the final tip, he left his house, knowing he would lose it along with a career he cherished. Now he can only wait. His English is good and improving and, if he can't be a journalist, he'd like to make a career as a researcher in the field he knows, perhaps joining a think-tank with a specialty in narco-trafficking. "Once you are a reporter, it's how you see the world," said Najera. "You think, 'What can I do for society? What can I do to make a better life for people?' It's the truth .. it's how I see things." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom