{"id":20089,"date":"2022-12-06T12:08:31","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T12:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justiceandpeace.nl\/?post_type=story&p=20089"},"modified":"2023-08-16T15:37:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T15:37:52","slug":"felix","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/justiceandpeace.nl\/en\/stories\/felix\/","title":{"rendered":"F\u00e9lix"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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6 December 2022<\/em>
\nWritten by Ekaterina Balueva<\/em>
\nPhotos by F\u00e9lix and Justice & Peace<\/em><\/p>\n

F\u00e9lix is a Mexican photojournalist from Veracruz, one of the world\u2019s most dangerous regions for journalists. In his work, he addresses issues like migration, enforced disappearances, drug violence, and freedom of expression. He reflects on the risks he faces while reporting, as well as his stay in\u00a0Shelter City Amsterdam<\/a>. In the Netherlands, he uses this time to rest, re-energize, and network.<\/h3>\n

F\u00e9lix has worked with major international media outlets such as The Volkskrant, The Associated Press, The Guardian, and The Washington Post throughout the years. He began his journalism career as an event photographer covering concerts. However, his viewpoint swiftly changed during the six-year administration of Felipe Calder\u00f3n, Mexico\u2019s former president and one of the leaders behind the drug war.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started witnessing executions in front of my house, bomb threats at school. It was something so daily that I stopped photographing concerts because it seemed far more important to me to record what was happening at that moment\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reporting on migration and enforced disappearances<\/h3>\n

F\u00e9lix admits that finding stories has never been difficult for him. In some ways, he was simply documenting what was occurring around him every day. And not just around him, but throughout the country: it might happen to a friend of a friend or a neighbour.<\/p>\n

In his last project covering migration, he accompanied the caravans of migrants as they traveled to Mexico\u2019s northern and southern borders. Not only did he accompanied them to the border, but he also experienced the same lifestyle as the migrants while on the move: sleeping in the park with them, traveling and eating together.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n \n

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F\u00e9lix places a poster of his photo exhibition \u201cWith no Ithaca awaiting\u201d in Amsterdam.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Dozens of migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean climb into a trailer in the Jesus Carranza highway in Veracruz, Mexico, as they travelled in a great caravan that crossed the country from South to North.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

He also worked primarily with family collectives who are searching for their missing relatives. As a result, the project\u00a0\u2018Gone\u2019<\/a>\u00a0was created, which went on to winning the Amnesty International Media Award in Canada for Best Mixed Media in 2021. The project recounts the stories of nine families in Veracruz who are desperately looking for their missing relatives who were victims of enforced disappearances. They were later discovered buried in one of Mexico\u2019s 2000 mass graves on the outskirts of Veracruz.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are experiencing a disappearance crisis in Mexico with more than 100,000 disappeared and missing people. The situation is terribly worrying and at the beginning, around maybe the year 2000, the disappearances were connected directly with the drug trafficking, but now anyone can disappear without any further investigation from the state. The state is, actually, a major actor participating in these disappearances alongside with the police forces. So, the families are scratching the soil themselves with their bare hands searching for their loved ones\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Clandestine pits are observed in a ranch called Colinas de Santa F\u00e9, located in Veracruz, Mexico, where 300 bodies of disappeared people were found, buried illegally.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The safety of journalists<\/h3>\n

The issues behind the press freedom in Mexico affects F\u00e9lix directly. Back in 2014, he founded the Mirar Distinto Photo Festival alongside with his fellow photojournalist and best friend, Rub\u00e9n\u00a0Espinosa. Just one year later, Rub\u00e9n\u00a0was\u00a0tragically murdered\u00a0<\/a>for covering protests in that part of the country.<\/p>\n

Following his best friend\u2019s murder, F\u00e9lix decided to not end the festival, but instead turn into something more bigger than it was intended. And so, the small series of security workshops with only 3 people turned into a big international festival for journalists and, most importantly, a political statement to the authorities and in the face of censorship.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was like saying \u201cWe are here and we are not only going to continue working but we are going to work even better, \u201d\u2019 recalls F\u00e9lix.<\/p>\n

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Rub\u00e9n Espinosa, a photojournalist murdered in Mexico, gives a workshop on the coverage of risky areas during the first edition of the festival Mirar Distinto in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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For his \u2018Vestiges\u2019 project, F\u00e9lix worked very closely with the families of his murdered journalist colleagues to recover the catalogue of objects that once belonged to them before they were killed and build the identity that the murderers wanted to erase. The objects could be represented with anything that the assassinated journalists used both in their personal and professional field: from their work badge to a camera or personal phone. Despite F\u00e9lix developing the idea for \u2018Vestiges\u2019, he considers the project to be a collaboration between him and the families of his deceased colleagues. \u2018The freedom of expression is something that concerns me all the time, something that I live through every day\u2019.<\/p>\n

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F\u00e9lix presenting his exhibition \u2018Vestiges\u2019 in The Hague.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Perseverance in the face of adversity and coming to Shelter City<\/h3>\n

F\u00e9lix himself has been a target of constant threats and harassment coming directly from the authorities. Back in 2013, he had several problems with the police after they tried to imprison him for taking pictures of self-defence groups, armed civilians for self-protection. A year after that incident, the someone broke into his house and stole all the computers and cell phones that belonged to his family.<\/p>\n

Earlier in January, he was detained by the authorities for covering a seizure of migrants by police officers. \u201cThey checked my phones, my credentials, where my home address came from, they deleted my photos and later on, police motorcyclists began to follow me to stop me, to check the car and harass me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like saying \u2018We are here and we are not only going to continue working but we are going to work even better\u2019.\u201d \u2013 F\u00e9lix<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And just two weeks before his arrival to Shelter City Amsterdam, F\u00e9lix received a death threat for working on environmental issues in Veracruz. He recalls two people approaching him at that moment and threatening to shoot him if he did not leave the area.<\/p>\n

The constant risks and harassment from the state and other groups led F\u00e9lix to apply to Shelter City. \u201cI applied, I think, a day before the last call. And well it was quite simple, actually, but I was thinking about myself, with everything that has happened to me this year. I applied and was surprised that it was so fast, I didn\u2019t imagine it would be so quick to be here\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe freedom of expression is something that concerns me all the time, something that I live through every day.\u201d \u2013 F\u00e9lix<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When coming to Amsterdam, he decided to identify three main objectives during his stay in the Netherlands: rest and get to know the city as it is his first time in Europe, network with editors, organizations, photographers and fellow human rights defenders, and, lastly, to organize an exhibition in the Netherlands, but also in Europe, to let people know what is going on in Mexico with journalists.<\/p>\n

His stay in Amsterdam made him not only to rethink and re-strategize his work as a photojournalist and human rights defender, but also stop and consider rest and wellbeing as options now that he is away from the risks.<\/p>\n

Future for journalism in Mexico<\/h3>\n

When asked whether he sees positive changes for journalism and press freedom happening in the future in Mexico, he answer was negative. So far this year, 18 journalists have been murdered in Mexico. \u201cThey [the journalists] continue to be published in international media and absolutely nothing happens because impunity persists in Mexico, just as they can kidnap or murder you for covering absolutely anything\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite the threats and attacks on his colleagues, he remains committed to show the world the truth on what is going on in his country and in Veracruz.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a journalist is killed, the target is not the journalist, the target is society.\u201d \u2013 F\u00e9lix<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe should definitely keep talking because there are people who need us, the migrants, the mothers of the disappeared, the families of the murdered comrades, the women who have been victims of sexual assault or the mothers of the women who have been victims of femicide\u2026they need us and society itself needs us\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, F\u00e9lix still acknowledges the importance of stopping for a while and taking a deep breath to continue living and be able to share the light on people\u2019s stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a journalist is killed, the target is not the journalist, the target is society. Who is being attacked is society because beyond the fact that they are attacking their right to be informed, they are preventing them from knowing what is really happening in the country\u201d.<\/p>\n\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

shedding light on the harsh reality in Mexico, despite the dangers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"story_category":[66,33],"class_list":["post-20089","story","type-story","status-publish","hentry","story_category-journalist-series","story_category-shelter-city-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nF\u00e9lix - Justice & Peace Netherlands<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/justiceandpeace.nl\/en\/stories\/felix\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"F\u00e9lix - Justice & Peace Netherlands\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"shedding light on the harsh reality in Mexico, despite the dangers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/justiceandpeace.nl\/en\/stories\/felix\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Justice & Peace Netherlands\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JusticeandPeaceNL\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-16T15:37:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/justiceandpeace.nl\\\/en\\\/stories\\\/felix\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/justiceandpeace.nl\\\/en\\\/stories\\\/felix\\\/\",\"name\":\"F\u00e9lix - 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