Where the narcos thrive One of the main fall-outs from Mexico’s war on the drug cartels, which kicked into high gear in December 2006, is the demise of crime reporting south of the border. Not only are the journalists/news photographers killed for the work they do, or did, but the cartel gunmen often do it in the most painful fashion. In 2017, for example, a 35-year-old crime reporter, Gumaro Pérez Aguilando, working out of Veracruz, was gunned down while stopping by his son’s elementary school to attend a Christmas party. One can easily see the effect that the killings have had ...