What follows are a list of articles pertaining to the lawsuit brought against Al Giordano and his Web site, the Narco News Bulletin {www.narconews.com}, by Mexican banker Roberto Hernández Ramírez. Stories by Giordano CLINTON’S MEXICAN NARCO-PALS The untold story behind February’s Yucatán summit redefines the enemy in the war on drugs. (Boston Phoenix, May 14, 1999.) This exposé, published exclusively in the United States by the Phoenix, lays out the reporting of Mexican journalist Mario Menéndez Rodríguez, who alleged that Roberto Hernández Ramírez financed his 1991 purchase of Banamex through illegal drug-trafficking. When Giordano and Menéndez repeated those charges in New York a year later, Hernández sued them. COME TO CHIAPAS An open letter to Senator John Kerry and Teresa Heinz. (Boston Phoenix, September 12, 1997.) BORDERLINE BEHAVIOR In the ’70s, US diplomat Jeffrey Davidow helped cover up the atrocities of Chile’s Pinochet regime. Today he consorts with drug traffickers. Is this who we want representing US interests in Mexico? (Boston Phoenix, December 17, 1999.) REBEL RAINMAKERS After seven years in the Chiapas jungle, the Zapatistas are finally on the road to Mexico City. (Boston Phoenix, March 9, 2001.) Stories about the lawsuit PRESS CLIPS: DRUG WAR GOES ON TRIAL Mexican banker sues Narco News. By Cynthia Cotts, the Village Voice, December 20, 2000. DON’T QUOTE ME: THE INTERNET ON TRIAL The war on drugs, a powerful Mexican banker, and a libel suit add up to a big threat to independent online journalism. Plus, a conversation with Al Giordano. By Dan Kennedy, the Boston Phoenix, April 13, 2001. HACKS HIT IN DRUGS WAR An American investigative journalist is being sued over his Web site’s reports of drug-trafficking in Mexico. So what are the implications for freedom of speech? By Sean Dodson, the Guardian (London), June 25, 2001. DOES MEXICAN SUIT FIT IN NY? By Mark K. Anderson, Wired News, June 25, 2001. PRESS CLIPS: DRUG WAR ON THE WEB Narco News ready for libel suit in New York. By Cynthia Cotts, the Village Voice, June 27, 2001. NARCONEWS.COM V. BANAMEX A David v. Goliath drug-war story in a NY court. The Razor Wire, July 2001. NET REPORTING AT STAKE By Mark K. Anderson, Wired News, July 23, 2001. LIBEL SUIT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY ONLINE By Alexandra Marks, Christian Science Monitor, July 24, 2001. CROSS-FIRE IN THE DRUG WAR Narco News editor warns of libel action’s chilling effect on free speech. By Amy Langfield, Online Journalism Review, July 29, 2001. LIBEL, PAN-AMERICAN STYLE How did Al Giordano land in the middle of the hottest First Amendment case in years? By JoAnn DiLorenzo, the Valley Advocate, August 9, 2001. CHILL FACTOR Dubious lawsuit forces Narco News to shut down. (Actually, after a temporary shutdown, the site is up and running again.) By Ben Winters, In These Times, August 20, 2001. HOT MUCKRAKER By Mim Udovitch, Rolling Stone, August 30, 2001.

We at the Phoenix knew we had something special on our hands when, more than two years ago, we published a major exposé by Al Giordano on the alleged drug-trafficking activities of one of Mexico’s richest and most powerful bankers (see " Clinton’s Mexican Narco-Pals, " News, May 14, 1999). What we didn’t know was that the story and its aftermath would turn Giordano into an international cause célèbre.

There he is inside the current issue of Rolling Stone (the one with the August 30 cover date), characteristically enveloped in an outrageously thick cloud of tobacco smoke he has just exhaled, accompanied by the headline hot muckraker — part of the magazine’s " Hot List. " Giordano and his Web site, the Narco News Bulletin (www.narconews.com), are being sued for libel in New York City by Mexican banker Roberto Hernández Ramírez — a suit that has attracted the attention of media outlets from London to Chicago to San Francisco. Giordano tells Rolling Stone’s Mim Udovitch: " Narco News is the canary in the coal mine, and if that bird stops singing, then all manner of authentic journalism will have to evacuate the mine. "

To back up: Giordano, a long-time anti-nuclear activist, friend of the late Abbie Hoffman, and former political writer for the Phoenix, reported in his 1999 Phoenix article on the findings of Mario Menéndez Rodríguez, the publisher of the Mexican newspaper Por Esto! According to Menéndez’s reporting, Hernández used illegal drug-trafficking profits to finance his 1991 purchase of Banamex, Mexico’s biggest bank, which recently merged with Citigroup.

In 2000, after having been based in Latin America more or less full-time for several years, Giordano founded Narco News, an online publication dedicated to covering the war on drugs from a pro-legalization point of view. Not long after that, while in New York, he and Menéndez repeated their charges against Hernández in interviews with the Village Voice and WBAI Radio, and during an appearance at Columbia University. Giordano also published those charges in Narco News.

Hernández struck back with a libel suit. But though the suit was reported on by the Village Voice, the Boston Globe, and the Phoenix (see " Don’t Quote Me, " News and Features, April 13), the case did not attract wider attention until July, when the parties appeared in a New York courtroom to argue defense motions for dismissal. A decision is not expected for at least several months. But, suddenly, the media are calling. The outlets that have covered the story include the London Guardian, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago-based magazine In These Times, the Online Journalism Review, and the Web site Wired News, of San Francisco. A Wall Street Journal story is said to be in the works. Razor Wire, which is distributed within the US prison system, recently published a story. And, of course, there’s Rolling Stone.

" It’s a frivolous lawsuit, without merit, meant only to harass and chill speech, " Giordano told the Phoenix in an e-mail this week. " I would like to thank Roberto Hernández and all his new colleagues on the Citigroup board for being such litigious assholes. Before Banamex sued me I had only 3000 hits a day. Now I’ve got 25,000 daily hits. Only in América! "

Issue Date: August 16 - 23, 2001