Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel threatens to kill TV anchor over ‘unfair’ coverage in sinister online video

MASKED men claiming to be from Mexico's deadliest drug gang have threatened to murder a TV anchor over her "unfair" coverage of the cartel.

The Jalisco New Generation cartel said that journalist Azucena Uresti was biased in her reporting and that she was favouring "self-defence groups" who are standing up to the gangsters.

In a video shared on social media, a spokesperson for the group, who is surrounding by heavily armed men wearing face coverings, says that he is speaking on behalf of the cartel's leader Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho.

“I am not against freedom of expression, but I am against whoever attacks me directly," the person said.

The man speaking promised Uresti that she would "eat her words".

The cartel spokesperson went on to say that he was not a "debt collector or extortionist, nor am I a kidnapper" but instead said the vigilante groups were traffickers, kidnappers and extortionists.

It comes after a report by Uresti which focused on the rise of armed groups who have been defending themselves against the cartel.

Just hours after receiving the death threat, Uresti posted a picture of herself smiling at her desk ready to go back to work.

Seemingly unfazed by the video, Uresti said in a live broadcast: "This morning, an alleged criminal group issued threats against several media outlets and against myself for the journalistic work we do in Michoacán."

On Tuesday morning, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that Uresti and "all Mexicans" would be protected.

"It is our responsibility so that they are not intimidated or threatened by anyone," he said.

Last September, a journalist who reported on crime in Veracruz was found murdered and decapitated next to train tracks.

Julio Valdivia, 44, wrote about grisly crimes in the gang violence-plagued Gulf Coast state and his death was disclosed by Diario El Mundo, the newspaper he worked for.

While there were initial indications that a train may have run over Valdivia, that was ruled out by the prosecutor’s office, a newspaper staffer said, according to the . 

The staffer said Valdivia had been “beheaded and tortured.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists spoke out against the ";terrible events" that led to Valdivia’s death and made an "urgent call" for authorities to find the culprits. 

A report conducted by the CPJ claimed that Mexico was the deadliest country in the world for the media in 2020.

Almost a third of all journalist killings around the world last year took place in Mexico, according to the committee. 

Since the year 2000, 124 journalists have been murdered in Mexico making it the most dangerous place for a reporter outside of a war zone.

Founded in 2009, the CJNG is now considered the most dangerous and powerful cartel in Mexico.

Its drug trafficking empire now reaches all corners of the globe, despite ferocious competition from other cartels in Mexico and increasingly desperate efforts from international authorities to hold back the blood-dimmed tide.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration is even offering a $10,000,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of the CJNG's leader, El Mencho, which is the highest reward of its kind ever offered.