Spellbinding Talk by Journalist, Human Rights Activist and Author Lydia Cacho

The speaker at February’s meeting of the Costa Press Club was Lydia Cacho, the renowned investigative journalist currently living in exile from her native Mexico as a result of her work. The title of her talk, ‘Saving children, building a new future’, was the introduction to her personal story of bravery in the pursuit of justice and the protection of the vulnerable.

Lydia explained to her rapt audience that, like many, she became a journalist by combining her specialist subject with her talent for writing. She studied criminology and, having heard accounts of sexual violence against children, decided not only to write their stories and bring them to the attention of a wider public but as an activist to create a refuge and networks to protect the victims. She won the trust of children as young as five and recalls feeling almost overwhelmed by their suffering, but also by their courage. One small girl, she said, recounted what had happened to her because she wanted Lydia to ensure that it wouldn’t happen to other boys and girls. ‘I’d never have done what I did without the bravery of children’, said Lydia.

Lydia’s battle on behalf of the vulnerable, press club members learned, was a fight which she waged against highly influential figures in Mexico, and as a result of which she was kidnapped and tortured, but which saved many children from abuse and led to the imprisonment of many guilty men. ‘I put those men behind bars,’ she said.

The talk was followed by dinner at Restaurante Bendito in Málaga, with an opportunity for members and guests to chat to Lydia and ask her to sign some of her books, and a vote of thanks to her from club president Neil Hesketh on behalf of everyone present for an absorbing and inspiring account of her work.

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