Yesterday I heard a horrifying story

 

As I was waiting for my Pizza to be cooked at the Mall I noticed a local man who lives down the hall from us. We had spoken a few times last year so I went over to reintroduce myself.

As the small talk progressed about the average politics of Mexico I mentioned that AMLO (the nickname for the present President) might be acquiring the bad habits of his predecessors. He retorted strongly that he did not want to hear any criticism of AMLO and then told me that he - AMLO had intervened after his wife had been the victim of oligarchical violence.

He told the story of how his wife - Susana Carreño, a renowned journalist had been chasing down a story about the corruption in a local land deal that would have had severe ecological and social consequences if it had been allowed. Susana Carreño, with a colleague, had been returning from an interview with the local village Mayor and soon to be affected residents, when another jeep rammed her on the road and two men jumped out. One held a gun on the colleague while the other slashed her neck with a big knife and stabbed in her stomach a couple of times. Read a story about this here

Frederick, her husband believes that she was not shot but stabbed as a warning to other critics of the development. The attackers quickly left and while the lady was applying pressure to her neck, to stop the bleeding, the colleague phoned the local hospital. Help quickly arrived and she was whisked to the hospital and treated. After treatment she went into rehab and then into a safe house. AMLO, through an agency setup to pay for journalists who get attacked, has paid for all her bills.

She is still in protective custody and even when she arrives to see Frederick she is escorted by "twelve soldiers with guns."