Mexican Journalist Asylum Request Postponed

The case of the Mexican journalist who asked for asylum in the US two and a half years ago has been kicked down the road.

Emilio Gutierrez Soto says that his life was threatened on a daily basis after writing critical stories about the Mexican military and its treatment of Mexican citizens as part of the continuing drug war. He and his then 15 year old son sought asylum in the US but the case has been meandering through the federal court system.

According to the Associated Press Gutierrez’ last hearing, about a month ago, ended without a resolution due to incomplete evidence. The trial resumed last week but Gutierrez’ lawyer asked for it to be rescheduled.  According to the AP the lawyer, Carlos Spector

said through his staff that the hearing won’t now be allowed to continue until May 9, 2012. No reason was given for such a lengthy delay, though Spector’s office believes it could be that U.S. authorities hope Mexico’s brutal cycle of drug violence will have calmed somewhat by then.

Apparently Gutierrez makes a living doing odd jobs in the Las Cruces area. And he’ll have to do more of it while waiting for the drug wars to fizzle.

To put his asylum request in perspective, “the U.S. receives nearly 3,000 asylum requests from Mexico each year, but just 252 of those cases were granted between 2005 and 2009.”