Mexican journalist Armando Rodriguez, renowned for his coverage of gangland slayings in his hometown of Ciudad Juarez, lay dead in a casket, shot by suspected cartel hitmen.

As his colleague Jorge Luis Aguirre drove to the funeral home in the dismal border city to pay his last respects, his cell phone rang. The husky voice delivered a chilling warning: “You’re next.”

“I left Ciudad Juarez in panic the same day,” said Aguirre, the editor of news website “La Polaka.”

The newsman joined a growing number of Mexicans fleeing raging drug cartel violence in and around Ciudad Juarez to begin a long-shot bid for political asylum next door in the United States.

More than 9,300 people have been gunned down, mutilated and beheaded in the grim industrial powerhouse south of El Paso, Texas, since early 2008 when the rival Juarez and Sinaloa cartels began an all-out war for rich trafficking routes.
Source: Patricia Giovine for Reuters.