Playa del Carmen shooting 'quite unusual,' says exiled Mexican journalist

He's seen hundreds of dead bodies, had a gun pointed at his head, and even found himself on a drug cartel hit list — but a Mexican journalist, who fled to Toronto, says the shooting that happened in Playa del Carmen on Monday morning is "quite unusual."

"Places like Cancun and Playa del Carmen have been — until now — pretty much isolated from drug-related violence in Mexico," says Luis Nájera, former journalist for the Mexico City-based Reforma newspaper.

"The government relies a lot on tourism. They've tried since the war on drugs in 2006 to isolate the tourist areas from violence, but they are not isolated from the drug trade."

Nájera, 46, was a senior reporter covering the country's war on drugs in the early 2000s in Ciudad Juarez — once dubbed the most violent city in the world.

​Hit list with his name on it

Nájera​'s reporting on the drug trade, corruption and organized crime made him a target for some people in government and cartels, he says.

"The threats came in stages, when you're living and working there, you're used to working with these issues," Nájera says, adding he had a gun pointed at his head at least five times.

And his sources told him that he could be targeted.

"The rumours on the street said there was a hit list with journalists — and my name was on that hit list."

But it wasn't until someone followed Nájera​'s wife home that he decided he needed to leave.

He came to Canada with his wife and three young children after the threats became too much. He arrived in 2008, first moving to Vancouver and later to Toronto.

Situation will likely get worse

Nájera says he worries the situation in Mexico will only get worse, because of increasing media censorship, fear and complacency.

"Social acceptance of violence is affecting the community," he said.

"You have these orphans that lost one, or maybe both parents because of the war on drugs. They're teenagers now and there's no mental health programs to support these youth."

And as Monday's shooting in Playa del Carmen underscores, violence in Mexico persists, even in tourist regions.

"The government may say it's over [but] it's not over," he says. "That's my pessimistic, or realistic side."

'I really miss my job'

Despite being very thankful to be alive today, Nájera says he does miss one thing about his days in Mexico: his work.

"I really miss my job as a journalist," he says. "But because there are a lot of things happening in Mexico right now, that few people know about — and I do — I know I can't go back."

Nájera still writes today, and was recently appointed PEN writer-in-residence at George Brown College.