Freedom Lecture: Anabel Hernandez - De Vrijheidslezing
Channel: De Balie
Date: 2017-12-12

Anabel Hernandez will give the 20th Freedom Lecture in De Balie. Hernandez is a journalist and writer, who had an international breakthrough with the book Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and their Godfathers. On December 12, Anabel Hernandez will speak in De Balie on the importance of freedom of press, the way in which drugs cartels operate and the many sacrafices she had to make in order to be free and safe and to continue her work as a journalist. 

Her work on the drugindustry, and the connections it has with the government, immediately became a bestseller in Mexico. Due to the revelations in the book, Hernandez received dead threats and had to be permanently guarded. Her family was in danger as well, as a resolut her father was murdered. It has been an unresolved murder ever since. Anabel Hernandez had to live abroad for a couple years for safety's sake, but now she is back in Mexico City.
In Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and their Godfathers Hernandez describes Mexico as a ‘mafiocracy’, a country with a government that started to support and protect the Guadalajara Cartel in 1980 and stayed involved with several drugs cartels ever since. At this moment, El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel is under government protection. A lot of politicians, businessmen and police officers from the book are still in function at this moment. As long as these people stay in power, Mexico will always be Narcoland, according to Anabel Hernandez.

Jos Bartman will be joining us during this Freedom Lecture. Bartman is a PhD candidate at the Department of Politics, University of Amsterdam, and a team member of the ERC-funded project Authoritarianism in a Global Age. His PhD research focuses on how subnational authoritarian regimes make use of repression. For his current research he has conducts fieldwork in Veracruz (Mexico) where he has interviewed targets and executors of political repression.

Teun Voeten will also be joining us on stage, he is an international photojournalist specializing in war and conflicts. He wrote books on the underground homeless in New York, the war in Sierra Leone and the drug violence in Mexico. Currently, he is writing a PhD dissertation on the Mexican Drug War.

Merijn de Waal is foreign editor at the Dutch newspaper NRC and is specialized in Latin-America.

On the 10th of December, Hernandez will also give the Freedom Lecture at Het Nutshuis Den Haag. Click here for more info & tickets. 

This programme is in collaboration with SMX collective and sponsored by Stichting Democratie en Media and vfonds.

Language: English

Editors: Anne- Marijn Epker & Sophie Rutenfrans

Livestream 2017-12-12

This video is also at:
https://vimeo.com/debalie/narcoland
https://youtu.be/BuVBNDm2yKc

http://www.debalie.tv



N E D E R L A N D S :

Anabel Hernandez geeft de 20e Vrijheidslezing in De Balie. Hernandez is journalist en schrijver, en werd internationaal bekend met haar boek Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and their Godfathers. Op 12 december spreekt Anabel Hernandez in De Balie over het belang van persvrijheid, de manier waarop drugskartels in Mexico opereren en de offers die ze heeft moeten brengen voor haar journalistieke vrijheid en veiligheid. 

Haar boek over de drugsindustrie en verwevenheid daarvan met de overheid werd meteen een bestseller in Mexico. Vanwege de onthullingen die ze deed in haar boek werd Hernandez met de dood bedreigd en moest permanent bewaakt worden. Maar ook haar familie werd ernstig bedreigd, en haar vader is zelfs vermoord. Het is tot op heden een onopgeloste moord gebleven. Anabel Hernandez woonde een aantal jaar in het buitenland voor haar eigen veiligheid, maar ondertussen is ze terug in Mexico City. 

Lees meer:
https://www.debalie.nl/agenda/podium/de-vrijheidslezing%3a-anabel-hernandez/e_9783129/p_11770230/




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