DANGEROUS TIMES FOR MEXICO'S WRITERS

MEXICO CITY---For nine months, Homero Aridjis, a Mexican poet and
international spokesman for freedom of expression, has not stepped out
of his house without the bodyguards that shadow him everywhere: to
poetry readings, to lunch with friends, to walk his dog.

Now, the telephone warnings that prompted the Mexican government to
assign guards to the president of PEN International, a global writers'
organization, have escalated with new and more chilling death threats
that reflect a pattern of increasing violence against Mexican writers
and journalists.

"Despite the enormous political opening in the last two years, it is
still extremely dangerous to be a journalist in Mexico," said Jorge
Zepeda, presldent of the Society of Journalists, one of two new
Mexivan watchdog organizations recently created to assist journalists
and publicize attacks against them.

Many journalists argue that it is the growing independence and power
of the Mexican media, fed partly by reforms in Mexico's one-party
political system, that have provoked the surge in attacks and threats
against journalists and photographers in the past two years. Once
largely pawns of the govemment, many newspapers and magazines are
professionalizing their staffs and pursuing aggressive investigations
of drug cartels and official corruption.

In the last 16 months, four journalists have been killed in Mexico in
job-related slayings. Scores have been attacked, threatened or
intimidated, making the period one of the most violent for journalists
here in a decade, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect
Journalists.

In 1997, threats against joumalists were up 55 pereent over the
previous year with 187 assaults, threats and acts of intimidation, a
Mexican group, Network for the Protection of Journalists, reported.
The attacks have been waged by drug cartels, corrupt law enforcement
officials and old-style political bosses, according to Mr. Zepeda, who
said his organization was attempting to "convince Mexican society that
an attack against a journalist is an attack against the whole society
and its right to he well-informed."

Many of the attacks appear to have been related to the journalists'
aggressive reporting. Benjamin Flores Gonzalez. editor of the
newspaper La Prensa in San Luis Rio Colorado, on the U.S. border, was
shot and killed on the front steps of his office in July, the target
of drug traffickers angered by his unflinching coverage. A Mexico City
joumalist was murdered last year and five others abducted, reportedly
by police officers who resented their coverage of corruption. The
authorities have made few arrests.

The telephone threats received by Mr. Aridjis, one of Mexico's
best-known writers and a frequent government critic, have been
particularly troubling to journalistic organizations hecause of his
high-profile position as president of PEN International, the
prestigious London-bascd organization of poets, novelists and othel
writers.

"Homero Aridjis becomes a lightning rod because of his visibility,"
said Joel Simoll of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The New York-based PEN American Center wrote in a letter last week to
President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico: "We suspect that whoever is behind
these calls is trying to inhibit Mr. Aridjis's activities as a writer,
International PEN president, and an editorial page columnist."

"Previous threatening phone calls also occurred within weeks of a
public appearance by or press interview wih Mr. Aridjis regarding
human rights in Mexico and contemporary dangers faced by writers," it
added.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry