The sorrows of Mexico

Over the last twelve years, as Mexico has become the epicentre of the international drug trade, more than one hundred journalists, a generation of writers, has been killed or disappeared. And not a single culprit has been jailed. There are vast areas of the country where no-one now dares to report from - and without a free press, there can be no democracy.This important, timely and provocative book is a collection of essays from the leading writer-journalists of Mexico, each one concentrating on a single issue among the many which afflict their country. So - in the words of Lydia Cacho, Anabel Hernandez, Juan Villoro, Diego Enrique Osorno, Emiliano Ruiz Parra, Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez and Marcela Turati - this will be a crucial testimony and proof of the bravest voices in a country which needs this courage to denounce the depth and range of corruption and violence. The contribution of each writer will consist of a new essay along with passages of previously untranslated text. An appendix lists the names of each of the journalists who have lost their lives for exposing corruption or criminality, and a second appendix - with the collaboration of the organisation Article 19 - includes extracts from the work of a number of those dead crusading writers.