Death threats and constant protection are part of the daily routine for journalist Ana Lilia Perez, who has used her pen to reveal the corruption that extends to the highest levels of Mexico's energy sector. "You look into the behaviour of a politician or a businessman, and then you realise that this one is a drugs smuggler, that one is a money launderer, and the next works for organised crime," she said.
Perez began investigating corruption in Mexico's oil and gas sector at the magazine Contralinea a decade ago. Her subsequent book on the subject, Camisas Azules, Manos Negras (Blue Shirts, Black Hands), angered the powers that be when it was published in 2010.
"I received death threats, I was followed, received threatening phone calls and was pursued through the courts," she said. Her work showed the links between the government - first under Vicente Fox, who was president between 2000 and 2006, and then Felipe Calderon, the president since 2006 - and Mexico's largest company, the state-owned Pemex petroleum firm, right through to the drug trade.
Perez also wrote that political officials and members of their families were owners of companies receiving huge contracts from Pemex. Seemingly all-pervasive, corruption is one of the greatest obstacles facing Mexican society. While it is a frequent topic in private conversations, there is little public discussion about the hold that organised crime has on politics and business.
"Armour-plated cars, bodyguards and bullet-proof vests will never be enough as long as there is no end to impunity" granted by state officials to members of organised crime, Perez said. Perez reported the threats against her to the state prosecutor for crimes against journalists. She also sought help from Mexico's human rights commission and the United Nations.
"I had to leave the country twice. It was a time of great tension. The risk remains and has even increased," she said. Although Perez no longer goes out onto the streets alone, she has not stopped investigating Pemex. "Corruption has reached such high levels that Pemex has become a crime paradise," she said.
In her most recent book, El Cartel Negro (The Black Cartel), Perez outlined how criminal organisations, including drug cartels, systematically tapped fuel from Pemex pipelines with the assistance of company employees, while politicians turn a blind eye. Perez said the petrol is sold to customers, some operating on an international scale. Born in Mexico City, Perez passed up the opportunity to study anthropology and history in favour of journalism. Yet even her own profession is not immune from the unscrupulous acts it is suppose to report on.
"There are a lot of political and economic interests in the media," Perez said, "and journalism has not succeeded in severing the umbilical cord of dependence on public money." She said Mexican media were often "not up to" the challenge of bringing corruption to light. But after years of doing just that, Perez said she is now looking to take some time off. She has been invited to spend a year in Germany by a Hamburg-based foundation helping journalists under threat.
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