Mexico: 4th Mexican Journalist Killed in Less Than a Month as Killers Continue to Go Unpunished

Another reporter was shot dead in Mexico, marking the fourth Mexican journalist killed in the country this year.

Three gunmen killed Roberto Toledo on Monday afternoon in a carpark at Zitacuaro City in the state of Michoacán. Toledo was a journalist at the local news website Monitor Michoacán.

Reports said he had just arrived at the law offices of the deputy director of the outlet when three armed men shot him. According to The Guardian, the region is known for violence as drug cartels, and criminal groups fight to control illegal logging.

Armando Linares, director of the Monitor Michoacán, posted a video on YouTube, wherein he expressed his apologies to the slain journalist's family.

Linares said that exposing governmental corruption had caused the death of one of their colleagues. The local news outlet's director noted that they do not carry weapons, and they only have "a pen and a notebook to defend ourselves."

Linares said that the Monitor Michoacan team had "suffered weeks, months of death threats" for exposing corrupt administrations and corrupt officials and politicians.

"We know where all of this comes from," he added. However, Linares did not identify those he thought were responsible.

Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists Jan-Albert Hootsen said Toledo was a camera operator and video editor for the Monitor Michoacan.

Hootsen noted that they classified Toledo as a media worker or press worker, CBS News reported.

Mexico: Other Mexican Journalists Killed

A Tijuana photojournalist was shot dead outside his home on January 17 as he left for work.

Margarito Martinez Esquivel also worked as a journalist assisting international outlets, including the BBC. His 16-year-old daughter heard gunshots and found her father's body by his car, according to San Diego Union-Tribune.

Martinez has filed an official complaint about the threats he had received through Facebook that referred to his work as a journalist. The threats were made a month ago before he was killed.

On January 23, Mexican journalist Lourdes Maldonado Lopez, who covered politics and corruption, was shot dead as she arrived at her home in Tijuana. Her colleagues said one of the windows of her vehicle was already covered in plastic as it had been shattered previously by gunfire.

On January 10, Jose Luis Gamboa's body was found in the Floresta neighborhood in Veracruz. Gamboa had been stabbed at least seven times, according to Committee to Protect Journalists report.

Hootsen earlier said that Gamboa's brutal killing was a sign that Mexico may continue to see the slayings of reporters. He noted that authorities must do everything to identify Gamboa's killers and determine if his death was related to his work as a reporter.

Gamboa founded and edited the Inforegio news website. He also co-founded and edited the news website La Noticia while publishing news on his personal Facebook page.

In the states of Yucatan and Oaxaca, two journalists survived attacks against them.

Mexico is the Most Dangerous Country in The World for Journalists

In the recent annual report of Reporters Without Borders report, the Latin American nation has once again become the most dangerous country in the world for journalists for the third consecutive year, NBC News reported.

Various organizations, including the group Article 19, noted that 148 Mexican journalists had been killed in Mexico since 2000.

Under the administration of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 28 journalists were already killed. Many Mexican journalists accused Lopez Obrador of failing to take meaningful actions to protect them and their colleagues.

Javier Garza, a journalist in the city of Torreón, said the president keeps on saying that the state no longer persecutes journalists, which is correct. However, Garza noted that Lopez Obrador does not stop any other perpetrators from attacking members of the press.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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