‘I will make you eat your words’: Mexican drug cartel threatens to kill news anchor for ‘unfair coverage’

The threat came in a video message

Jalisco New Generation Drug Cartel has been linked to several attacks in the past, including attacking police officers (Getty Images)

A group of masked men claiming to be a part of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel have issued a video threatening a news anchor for what they called unfair coverage.

The video, released on Monday, showed a man speaking on behalf of Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” leader of the Jalisco New Generation (CJNG), issuing threats against Milenio Television, especially its anchor Azucena Uresti, claiming its coverage favoured so-called self-defence groups battling the cartel in Michoacán state.

“I will make you eat your words even if they accuse me of femicide,” the man says in the video addressing Ms Uresti.

The man in the video, laden with weaponry, was not identifiable and it has not been confirmed if it was Oseguera Cervantes or one of his aides. He was surrounded by several heavily armed men during the video, while he delivered the message seated at a small desk.

He alleged that the vigilante groups were actually drug traffickers. The message mentioned Hipolito Mora, who organised a self-defence force in Michoacan nearly a decade ago, but who more recently has distanced himself from such groups, as well as Los Viagras, a criminal group operating in the state.

The Jalisco cartel representative said in the message that he did not want to inhibit freedom of expression but just wanted the coverage to be even.

Milenio Television said in a statement late Monday that Ms Uresti had its total support, as did other journalists. It demanded a rapid investigation that guaranteed her safety and denied it had ever favoured any group in its coverage.

Presidential spokesman Jesús Ramírez Cuevas said via Twitter that the Mexican government “will take the necessary measures to protect threatened journalists and news outlets”.

Threats against journalists are not empty talk in Mexico. The Committee to Protect Journalists considers Mexico the deadliest country in the Western Hemisphere for reporters.

The CJNG is one of the deadliest cartels in Mexico and has been accused of carrying out attacks in the past. Oseguera Cervantes is one of the country’s most wanted men. The US is looking to capture him and is offering a $10m (£7.2m) reward for any information.

Last year, the group was blamed for an attack on a drug rehabilitation centre in the state of Guanajuato that killed 26 people. In the same year, another brazen attack in Mexico City left the police chief seriously wounded and killed three others, where CJNG was again believed to be involved.

Additional reporting by agencies