Borderland Beat![]()
About the reporter: Zane Alejandro Plemmons Rosales is a freelance writer who regularly has work published in Canada, the US and Mexico. Zane is a dual citizen and member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. He is multi-lingual and was educated in three countries, traveling North America extensively; leading to his varied works. ![]()
Texas-based freelance journalist has been missing for a month after crossing into Tamaulipas to capture photographs of a shooting, a journalism advocacy group said.
According to the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, Zack Alejandro Plemmon Rosales, who has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico, had been staying at a hotel in Nuevo Laredo, Tamps., when he left to cover a shooting and never returned.
Nuevo Laredo is considered a main base of operations for the Zetas cartel, which has been in a bloody struggle with their former masters, the Gulf Cartel.
The Knight Center for Journalism is a training and outreach program for journalists in the Americas and the center has also kept a close eye on violence against journalists.
Because of the intense wave of violence, newspapers in the city of Nuevo Laredo have stopped publishing stories about organized crime, according to the Knight Center, which emphasized that Mexico is the most dangerous country in the Western Hemisphere for journalists.
According to KABB-TV in San Antonio, the 30-year-old Plemmon was a crime photographer who had been working for the Sinaloa newspaper El Debate and had been tracking the actions of the Sinaloa Cartel. The television station reported that hotel employees said two masked men went into the building and took Plemmon’s belongings.
The following is the notice published in the Knight Center website:
A month has passed since a freelance photojournalist from Texas working in Mexico has been heard from, reported the television station Fox 29 of San Antonio the night of Thursday, June 21.
Freelancer Zane Plemmons was staying in a hotel in the border city of Nuevo Laredo when he left to take photos of a shooting, the hotel's receptionist told the journalist's sister, Lizanne Sánchez.
Zane Alejandro Plemmons Rosales, who has dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship, was working for the Mexican newspaper El Debate at the time of his disappearance.
Because of the intense wave of violence, newspapers in the city of Nuevo Laredo have stopped publishing stories about organized crime. In 2011, a journalist in Nuevo Laredo was decapitated for reporting anonymously via social media about organized crime.
Sources: lldefonso Ortiz for the Monitor and The Knight Center for Journalism
