DRUG TRADE IS DEADLY BEAT FOR MEXICAN JOURNALISTS

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican journalists covering the drug
trade near the U.S. border frequently face a very simple choice:
Accept a fistful of dollars or go down in a hail of bullets.

On Sunday, the body of Mexican reporter Pablo Pineda was dumped by two
unknown men across the U.S. border, where it was picked up by U.S. Border
Patrol agents. Pineda was a journalist for La Opinion, a daily in the
border town of Matamoros.

U.S. authorities said an autopsy determined that Pineda, 38, had been shot
once in the back of the head, execution-style, according to reports in
local newspapers.

Global journalists' groups are looking into the case.

It was just the latest in a series of attacks in which reporters
investigating the huge flow of cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamines and
heroin across the 1,900-mile Mexican-U.S. border have been threatened or
murdered.

French group Reporters Without Borders believes Pineda was killed for his
``aggressive style'' in covering police corruption and the drug trade, said
Regis Bourgeat, the group's head of American affairs.

``We are aware of the problem near the U.S. border area, where journalists
who investigate drug trafficking face murder threats, and we've had several
journalists murdered in recent years,'' he told Reuters in a telephone
interview.

``MOST DANGEROUS PLACE'' IS BORDER

Joel Simon, deputy director of the New York-based Committee to Protect
Journalists, said that ``the most dangerous place to be a journalist in
Mexico is along the U.S. border, and the most serious threat is the drug
trade.''

The group is gathering information about the case and is considering
sending a letter expressing concern to Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo,
Simon said.

He said his group had consistently asked the Mexican government to take
steps to guarantee the safety of journalists who face death threats, given
that freedom of expression is a fundamental right under the Mexican
Constitution.

``We believe any attack carried out to prevent a Mexican citizen from
exercising this right should be a federal offense, and the federal Attorney
General's Office should take on the case,'' he told Reuters.

When local authorities have investigated killings of journalists, the cases
have usually not been prosecuted, Simon said. He cited the gunning down of
Benjamin Flores Gonzalez in a remote border town in 1997.

Flores was the director of a small newspaper in San Luis Rio Colorado, near
the Arizona border in the northern state of Sonora. He had been an
outspoken critic of state politicians and had denounced regional drug
barons.

FLORES SUCCESSOR THREATENED

Another journalist in San Luis Rio Colorado, Jesus Barraza, received
threats after taking over as editor of Flores' newspaper, according to a
report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Barraza later founded a new
weekly in the same town.

Sergio Haro, editor of the Mexicali weekly Siete Dias, received threats
after reporting on the release from prison of Jaime Gonzalez Gutierrez, the
man accused of killing Flores.

But the best symbol of the dangers of frontier journalism may be
award-winning journalist Jesus Blancornelas of Tijuana, who narrowly
escaped a 1998 assassination attempt and is now constantly escorted by 10
Mexican soldiers.

Blancornelas was shot four times by about 10 thugs wielding AK-47s and
shotguns and working for the notorious Arellano Felix cartel. His bodyguard
died with 30 bullet wounds.

Blancornelas told Reuters he favored making crimes against journalists a
federal offense.

``Most of the time, state authorities do not investigate, out of
incompetence, complicity or fear,'' he said. ``When it's a journalist
killed for writing about drug trafficking, the police already know who
ordered it.''