Covering Mexico's cartel wars puts journalists in the line of fire

This photograph, taken in Cuidad Juarez on October 20, records the 2,000th dead in Mexico's cartel drug wars

By Mayra Cuevas-Nazario, CNN

(CNN) -- Lucio Soria is a recorder of the dead in Ciudad Juarez's drug cartel war.

"El Sorias," as he is affectionately called by his colleagues, is a photojournalist for the Mexican city's two main daily newspapers, El Diario and El PM. For the last 10 years, his job has been to photograph the bodies and crime scenes left behind after cartel hit men completed their work.

"I see the photos of the dead as art, not as dead people. I feel sad for the families, they cry and sometimes I cry too," Soria told CNN in a recent telephone interview.

"My record is 16 dead in one shift."

A regular shift goes from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., or later if there are any last-minute bodies. The day is spent listening to police scanners and waiting for the code that will send Soria and a reporter rushing through the city's congested streets to a new crime scene.

My record is 16 dead in one shift.

"Z-59 is the code for execution and Z-23 is the code for a dead person," he said.

Soria knows that arriving at a crime scene too soon could mean a surprise encounter with the killers -- one that could cost him his life.

He is part of a group of journalists operating in one of the world's most dangerous cities. Every day the passion for their profession competes with the fear of death.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 26 journalists have been killed since 2005 in Mexico -- most of them while covering the crime or corruption beats. By comparison, 10 journalists were killed in the same time period while covering the war in Afghanistan.

"There are challenges to the fulfillment of our mission, challenges we have never faced before," said Rocio Gallegos, the editor of El Diario, the city's main news publication, with a circulation of 55,000.

"Any journalist in Ciudad Juarez is at risk," she said.

For the paper's staffers, death hit home last year with the murder of veteran crime reporter Armando "El Cholo" Rodriguez.

On November 13, 2008, unidentified gunmen shot and killed Rodriguez, 40, while he was parked in front of his house with his 8-year-old daughter in the car; she was not harmed.

Rodriguez had been receiving threats since February, Gallegos said.

One year later, no one ha....Read story at CNN