The woman who says her husband was gunned down by Mexican pirates now has a new mission.
After a long road trip, Tiffany Hartley is back in Colorado and says she plans to raise awareness about border violence.
Last month Tiffany and her husband David were jet skiing on Falcon Lake along the border of Texas and Mexico when they were attacked. Hartley says gunman in boats shot and killed David and she fled from the area because she was concerned for her safety. His body has not been found and it's believed the Zetas drug cartel is responsible.
"I had to leave him. I had to make that choice of leaving him and saving my own life," she said on Sunday in La Salle with her parents nearby. "That was the hardest decision ever."
Tiffany says she wants to keep this story in the news. She will soon be appearing on several national talk shows to continue telling David's story.
"I'd rather him be next to me, with me then having to do all this by myself," she said on Sunday.
The investigation into the case continues, but now with a federal focus from the Mexican government.
Tiffany remains optimistic about the investigation and thankful for American assistance.
"If Mexico doesn't let us in and doesn't let us help then their hands are tied. Now we are at the mercy of Mexico and their government," she said.
Tiffany said she'd like to speak to members of Congress of about the violence along the border.
"I don't want David's death to go in vain, but I want people in America to realize this is a big issue."
narcoblogger has stepped into the breach left by Mexican journalists, who dare not report as they used to do. Thirty journalists have been killed in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon started his war on the drug cartels in 2006, making Mexico the most deadly country in Latin America for the media. Most are victims of the drug cartels, not caught in crossfire but targeted for reporting what is going on.
Last month, four reporters from the central Mexican state of Durango were kidnapped after reporting a prison riot, which followed the revelation that the prison governor was allowing inmates to go out at night and commit murders. The journalists were freed only after their TV station agreed to broadcast a video, produced by one of the drug cartels, which showed corrupt policemen who were apparently working for a rival cartel.
Today, attention has turned to Tamaulipas state where police have found 72 unburied bodies dumped on a ranch. They are presumably victims of the ever more vicious drug war, which in this part of Mexico pits Los Zetas against the Gulf Cartel. In recent weeks, the industrial city of Monterrey, Mexico’s wealthiest, has been almost brought to a standstill by cartel road blocks, kidnaps and gunbattles, following the murder of a local mayor. Police chiefs, political candidates and senior state officials are frequently targeted for assassination. The drug gangs are trying to seize the Mexican state, and closing down the media is just one part of their plan.
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