The Narco News Bulletin
"The name of our country
is América"
-- Simón Bolívar
Message from the
Publisher
May 18, 2000
To Our Readers,
Years ago I made a vow
that I would not become a "desk journalist," someone
who just takes phone calls, faxes or e-mails and reproduces them.
A writer, a journalist,
must be out on the streets, in the field, with the people.
As the great warrior from
Guerrero, Lucio Cabañas, said: "Ser pueblo. Hacer pueblo. Estar con el Pueblo." Long before Nike ads, he said,
"Be people, do people, be with the people."
The Narco News Bulletin
has, in 30 short days and nights, opened up a space that breaks
the information blockade between borders and languages. We are
not going to rest on our laurels just because we've received,
in our first month, more than 90,000 visits to this online newspaper.
Yes, we're the talk of the town in some parts, but that is not
our goal. Our goal is to defeat a tyranny imposed by current
US drug policy over all of América, indeed, all the world.
As a writer, no one is
more important to me than the reader. You generously grant me
your time. I owe you much in return. I owe you a publication
that constantly evolves and improves and serves your needs and
desires. There is a lot still to be done to improve this publication.
I have been pegged to this screen day and night in that task.
But even that, would not be enough.
I owe it to you to not
become part of the machine.
Narco News has published
40 stories and offered you links to twice that many original
sources of information in a short time. As the US-imposed drug
war becomes more naked in it's hypocrisy and damage done to all
of us, the news is flying through here at such a rapid pace that
I worry that truly important stories get lost in the shuffle.
And, frankly, as a writer
and journalist, I miss being out in the field.
Thus, we announce today
the next stage of Narco News.
We have created, on this
site, a book: a damning indictment of drug prohibition and the
harm it has caused all of América, inside the United States
and beyond.
Many other media outlets
and participants in Civil Society have generously given us a
push. We have also spent countless hours during the past month
publicizing the site. Those efforts have brought us to the next
stage.
We're going to take a
step back for a few days, and assess how to improve what it is
we do here. Among our goals in the coming weeks:
1. To make Narco News
more reader-friendly, so that nobody misses the big stories that
are already published here, and the others yet to come.
2. To create a mailing
list of readers who want to be alerted of breaking developments.
3. To offer wider coverage
in Spanish, and eventually in French and Portuguese.
4. To create forums in
Narco News for your participation.
5. To make possible more
direct reporting of news from the street, the mountains, and
the jungles, both concrete and green.
We're not cyber-wizards
here. We're journalists. We barely understand the technology.
We don't even know how to do some of these things yet. If not
for some valient volunteers who have stepped forward in recent
weeks to help us with graphics, technology and translations,
Narco News would not be half of what it already is.
We have stories in the
pipeline from Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, the Caribbean
and other parts of América that we are readying for publication.
We wanted to get some of them to you already but we have also
vowed to assure that what we offer here at Narco News is factual
and documented. We're a bit overwhelmed in reporting the news
to you. In a large part, that's because we're picking up the
slack of the mass media that is not doing its job.
In sum, we make some requests
of you, our readers.
1. To continue, as so
many of you have done, spreading the word about Narco News, creating
links from other websites, listservs, usenet, online forums and
through other media outlets.
2. To help assure that
the most newsworthy stories that already appear on Narco News
receive more and wider coverage in the media and on the web.
3. To offer us your counsel
on how we can make this online newspaper more effective in our
task, easier to read, and ever-improving in fulfilling the needs
and desires of the most important people at Narco News: the readers.
4. To translate those
articles that don't yet appear in Spanish or other languages.
Don't wait for permission. Just do it and send it to us, along
with instructions of whether you wish to be credited or not.
5. To help make sure that
the stories we have already published don't slip through the
cracks of the day-to-day, fast-paced, world of the media. (To
those of you who are reporters and Authentic Journalists: there
are at least a dozen stories here that cry for your talents and
for exposure to a larger public.)
And so with this this
"message from the publisher," at the risk of losing
a small amount of media momentum, we take a break for about a
week to get back in the field and comply with our mission. And
to step back and look at the "big picture." Narco News
has arrived. Now we must push the envelope.
One of our advisors said
to me last night: "Don't announce that you're going into
the field to report. You leave yourself vulnerable to enemy attack."
True, the US Department
of State and its espionage agencies and Latin American outposts
are all over us like a cheap suit. Of course, if anything strange
happens to us while out in the field, the US Ambassador in whatever
country where we walk is responsible, and most likely ordered
the harm. And will be held responsible from Capitol Hill to Radio
City to Main Street.
The keys to this site
are in good hands. The Narco News Bulletin marches on with or
without any individual. As a political prisoner in Chiapas that
I interviewed said: "We don't know fear because we are coming
from behind."
Narco News has come from
behind. Nobody, except for you, the readers, expected us to make
a splash. We've already opened a space to break the information
blockade. And we will not stop until those walls fall.
So read and re-read the
reports we have already posted. Spread them far and wide and
bring new readers to the site. And when we reappear in a few
days, your counsel and participation will have brought us even
further in our mission.
Yes, and we're saving
a few surprises for when we return to the screen.
from somewhere in a country
called América...
Al Giordano
publisher
The Narco
News Bulletin
