BREAK THE SILENCE
At first we wanted to call this book Geography of Silence, because it is about the spaces within politics and culture, where the press is silenced by narcopower through threats, harassment, and death. But as soon as we began to receive the texts from our colleagues, we realized our mistake. Even when there is silence, journalism – as an act – demands deep reflection. We recognize the power of that reflection in silence because we want and believe in a better society. This book, if anything, is therefore a cry of commitment to life and to the trade itself, but also a cry of pain and loneliness.
Make no mistake, though: these stories exist in a landscape dotted with a different kind of silence, one of insecurity and censorship, where some plunder public funds, while others loot the people (through kidnapping and extortion), and still others destroy the future of an entire generation: they recruit them as lookouts, gunmen, and drug sellers, and thus make all but certain their untimely deaths. The following pages are our attempt to break those corrupting and unpunished silence.