Mexican Journalist Requests Asylum In US Due To Violence In Home Country

In Mexico, 30 reporters have been killed since the drug war began in 2006, making the country the most danger place in the world for reporters, according to the United Nations.

Now, a photojournalist who was recently kidnapped and tortured is seeking political asylum in the U.S.

Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco used to be a Televisa cameraman. He said drug cartel members kidnapped and tortured him a few months ago for simply doing his job.

Tuesday, he held a news conference here in El Paso to plead his case for political asylum.

The 17-year photojournalist with the Mexican media, said he’s now in front of the cameras. but had always been behind them.

“The whole ordeal had to do with a Mexican cartel wanting to force a national television network to publish videos they felt showed them in a better light,” said local attorney, Carlos Spector.

A group of journalists, including Hernandez Pacheco, say they were kidnapped by the Sinaloa cartel for about 4-to-5 days.

“He was tortured, beaten, starved,” said Spector.

Spector is representing Hernandez Pacheco as he seeks political asylum in the U.S.

He said the Mexican government used and exploited the group of journalists after the kidnappers let them go, “…him and the other cameramen were duped by the federal police that they were going to Mexico city, via airplane to meet with President Calderon.”

Instead, Spector says the reporters were paraded for the media at a national news conference, “Of all the kidnappings, murders and threats against Mexican press, 90 percent of them go unsolved. The few they do solve is so rare, they have to have a press conference.”

Some of the kidnappers were arrested and even identified by Hernandez Pacheco, but Spector said, “It is this press conference that has placed him and his family in fear.”

The cameraman said he fears the cartels and now his own government, which he says failed to protect him.

Hernandez Pacheco and his family are in the U.S. legally right now.

They have visas, but could stay permanently – if granted asylum.

Spector said it could take anywhere from a few months…to a few years to get a ruling.