Border drug violence affects U.S.

Alfredo Corchado spent years crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, risking his life to report on the… Alfredo Corchado spent years crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, risking his life to report on the drug-related violence plaguing both countries. But although the journalist has remained relatively unscathed, others were not as fortunate.

One of Corchado’s sources, a lawyer, helped drive him through Mexico to the U.S. border, only to be shot and killed when he returned.

“I speak tonight in memory of those killed, missing or threatened,” Corchado said.

Corchado, the Mexico Bureau chief at the Dallas Morning News, explored the problems of violence in Mexico and why Americans should care through his lecture, “Midnight in Mexico: Descent into Darkness,” to about 200 people gathered in the Twentieth Century Club last night.

“Our neighbor Mexico is in trouble, and we should be concerned,” said former Pennsylvania governor and panelist Dick Thornburgh before introducing Corchado.

In his lecture, Corchado spoke of both his decade-long experience as a journalist and the judicial problems of Mexico that allow drug cartels to continue to operate.

Corchado said through his reporting, he would like to find “Mexico’s democratic soul.”

He said his job as a journalist along the border is probably more dangerous than being a traditional war correspondent.

“Mexico’s conflict of war is within government and society,” he said.

Although Corchado said he didn’t want to report on cartels, he added that “At some point, you have to deal with the monster.”

Corchado was born in Mexico but raised in Texas. He said that the dual citizenship he attained might be what ­­— at times ­— saved his life.

“If someone puts a bullet to my head, they will have to pay,” Corchado said, because he said the United States would seek justice over a killed citizen.

Corchado was told once that nothing is worth dying for, but he said that “You must find a way to balance fear with silence.”

He said that more and more reporters censor themselves because of the dangers of being a journalist immersed in the cartels in Mexico.

The censorship, paired with journalists who operate under cartels, is the problem with the reporting from Mexico, Corchado said.

Cindy Skrzycki, a senior lecturer at Pitt and business correspondent for Globalpost.com, said that Corchado’s stories are stories that need to be told, especially in a time when the newspaper industry is diminishing and eliminating foreign bureaus.

Corchado also attended a small luncheon yesterday morning with about 20 people, during which he said, “Sometimes Mexicans say, ‘I wish we got bombed, because maybe then Americans would pay attention.’”

Corchado said there are daily battles to get coverage on the front page, and his reporting in Mexico along the border compete with local stories, which newspapers are increasingly placing more emphasis on.

The discussion panel included Thornburgh; Phil Williams, director of the Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies; David Shribman, executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; and Skrzycki.

The Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Security Studies sponsored the event.