Marisol Macías

Marisol Macías Castañeda, also appearing as Maria Elizabeth Macías Castro in media reports and known for her online name "NenaDLaredo" or "La Nena De Laredo," (c. 1972 – 24 September 2011), was a Mexican editor-in-chief for Primera Hora in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico and posted information about drug activities online. Macías was secretly reporting using the internet site Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, or Nuevo Laredo Live, about drug cartels in her city. Los Zetas murdered her in a publicly visible and brutal slaying with a note near her body as a warning to others. Her murder is the first documented murder of a journalist by a drug cartel in retaliation for journalism that was posted on a social media site.

Personal Marisol Macías Castañeda was 39 years old when she was murdered for her online postings. Nuevo Laredo en Vivo had become a site where people could announce to others about the dangers of drug violence and inform police. Macías was collaborating with others on the Nuevo Laredo en Vivo site, and after her murder, at least three others who have not been identified as journalists have been killed by Los Zetas drug cartel in retaliation for postings to the same social media site.

Career Marisol Macías Castañeda at one time worked for El Mañana newspaper. Macías was the editor-in-chief for the Primera Hora newspaper located in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Although she held an administrative post at the newspaper, she also wrote about drug trafficking for social media websites such as Twitter and Nuevo Laredo en Vivo.

Context An attack against social media users by Los Zetas was relatively new when the drug cartel murdered Macías. Just 12 days before Macías was murdered, two young social media users—a male and a female in their twenties—were found hanging under a bridge and disemboweled with a note nearby from Los Zetas warning against using the same website that Macías had also used. Since the media had been silenced by the drug cartels, people had begun to rely on information from social media and anonymous posts, and Los Zetas were suppressing that by killing on 13 September and then murdering the journalist Macías on 25 September. A moderator at the site with the pseudonym "Rascatripas," or "Belly Scratcher," was killed by beheading 9 November and left at the same spot as Macías.

Impact Ten other Mexican journalists had been killed in 2012 before Macías' murder. Macías was the fourth woman. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 25 out of the 59 journalists it has tracked as killed in Mexico since 1992 have been carried out as reprisals for their reporting. Most people on the social media sites used a pseudonym and Macías did the same, Bokova saw the need for the security for the Mexican journalists.

The Tamaulipas attorney general's office expressed its condolences to the family and announced an investigation into the murder. The Committee to Protect Journalists said the incident showed that there was a need to train journalists in cyber security. The website Nuevo Laredo en Vivo created its own memorial by posting a banner with her user name and the message, "You'll always be present."