• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, April 5, 2013

One of the most popular blogs documenting Mexico’s drug war, Valor por Tamaulipas (Bravery for Tamaulipas), closed down this week after threats of violence against the owner. That means one less source of information for Mexicans concerned about the drug war, as many professional journalists have already been silenced by similar threats.

In an indication of how seriously criminals take the threat posed by blogs, a Mexican drug gang had offered a $46,000 bounty for the head of the person who maintains the Valor por Tamaulipas blog. The blog said it is suspending operations at least for the time being, in what it called a “temporary stoppage.” The blog, which had 145,000 Twitter followers and 20,000 Facebook followers, also warned readers not to trust other sites claiming to be Valor por Tamaulipas.

Last month the criminals apparently made good on their threats to silence online “snitches,” with a video posted on YouTube which appeared to show a social media informer being executed. The supposed victim, who was kneeling and wearing a black hood, reads a letter stating that he was a contributor to Valor Por Tamaulipas and warning other contributors to stop talking about gang activities on online discussion forums. He then appears to be killed with a gunshot to the head.

The drug gangs have murdered reporters and bloggers in the past for discussing organized crime activities online. In September 2011, the mangled bodies of a man and a woman, both in their early 20s, were discovered hanging from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo, just across the Texas border, along with a banner explaining “This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet. You better f*cking pay attention. I'm about to get you.”

Later that same month another decapitated body turned out to be Maria Elizabeth Macías, 39, a freelance journalist and online commentator known as “La Nena de Laredo”; a message explained that she was killed for posting reports about drug-related crimes on “Nuevo Laredo en Vivo,” a local blog which reported drug-related crimes. And in November 2011 another body, supposedly of a social media user, was found in Nuevo Laredo with a note identifying the victim as a moderator of Nuevo Laredo en Vivo and stating, “this happened to me for not understanding that I shouldn’t report things on the social networks.” All three notes were signed with a “Z,” indicating they were  left by Los Zetas, a powerful gang based in Tamaulipas province.