Well this is terrifying: Apparently two Mexican new agencies were peppered with gunfire and grenades this week--the thanks they get for reporting on an organized crime ring. "A grenade exploded outside one of El Norte’s offices in Monterrey at 4:30 a.m., followed by an attack with a grenade that did not explode and gunfire at another office in the city in the afternoon," reports The New York Times' Randal C. Archibold, who's been tasked covering the very scary Mexican crime beat for the paper (49 headless bodies!). Archibold adds, "A spokesman for the newspaper said the attacks followed an investigation it had conducted into an organized crime ring it said was based at a state public transportation department that netted “hundreds of millions of dollars” through a plot involving stolen cars and illegal license plates." That article apparently ran Monday, and the attacks came on Tuesday.

And about the other paper? Archibold explains:

The other newspaper attacked was El Mañana in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Tex. It said an explosive device that appeared to be a grenade detonated near its main entrance at 6 a.m., causing cosmetic damage to the building but not injuring anybody.

In May, after it was attacked by a similar explosive device and gunfire, El Mañana had announced that it would cease to cover violence among criminal groups. In a statement on Tuesday, it reiterated that policy, while “condemning any action that limits our community’s and country’s freedoms.

Crime ring retaliations, usually resulting in journalists being found in trunks, garbage bags, and slain, are unfortunately commonplace in Mexico today, so much so that 81 journalists were killed since 2000, reports Archibold and some 42 journalists murdered in the country since 2006, per Reuters' Anahi Rama last August. That number has definitely gone up as the Committee to Protect Journalists says five journos have been killed this year. And there's still the fishy and very recent case of AP Intern Armando Montano whose mysterious death is still being investigated. Thankfully for the staffs of El Norte and El Mañana  no one was hurt in the two attacks. 

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Alexander Abad-Santos