2 Mexican Women Journalists Murdered by Armed Men in Mexico's State of Veracruz

Two Mexican journalists were murdered on Monday in Mexico's eastern state of Veracruz, the state attorney general's office said.

According to Reuters, Yessenia Mollinedo and Sheila Garcia died in the municipality of Cosoleacaque at around 3 p.m. Local media reported that unidentified gunmen shot the two journalists while sitting in a car parked in an Oxxo parking lot.

In the photos circulating online, Borderland Beat reported that Garcia was seen slumped in the front seat of a silver Ford Focus after she was struck and killed by bullets. Mollinedo was still alive at the scene, but she reportedly died before she was even brought to a hospital.

Mollinedo was the founder of El Veraz, a news portal reporting on Cosoleacaque, while Garcia was a photographer.

The two Mexican journalists were the 10th and 11th media workers killed in Mexico this year. No one has been arrested yet. Local authorities asked the public to submit any tips or information that may help them identify and locate the killers.

The 9th Mexican Journalists Murdered in Mexico

The murders of Yessenia Mollinedo and Sheila Garcia came four days after veteran journalist Luis Enrique Ramirez Ramos was found dead on the side of a highway in Mexico's Sinaloa state.

Ramirez Ramos was the ninth media worker murdered in the country this year. State prosecutors confirmed that the body found wrapped in a black bag on a dirt road near Culiacan on Thursday was Ramirez Ramos.

According to initial police reports, the Mexican journalist died from traumatic brain injury as a result of multiple violent blows to the head.

The 59-year-old Mexican journalist had been abducted near his house before he was found dead, his news website, Fuentes Fidedignas, or Reliable Sources, said.

Ramirez Ramos is listed as the "founding director" of the website. It has reported relatively little on the drug cartel violence that affects Sinaloa.

However, Fuentes Fidedignas usually reports on local political disputes, which is often a dangerous subject for reporters in provincial Mexico.

The media outlet also has a section on "good news" about Sinaloa, covering "the industrious, hardworking, and generous nature that our good people give the state." Its mission statement said they denounce "vices and corruption."

Attacks on Mexican Journalists in Mexico

Mexico was the second-deadliest country for journalists in 2021, next to India. According to Columbia Journalism Review, 153 journalists have been murdered since the late 1990s, and another 29 "disappeared."

It is suspected that the masterminds behind most killings are senior cartel leaders or public officials. According to data from the Mexican government, about 44 percent of the "probable aggressors" in the murders of journalists and human rights activists were public servants as of April 2021.

Mexico's National Human Rights Commission has urged the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists to quickly adopt comprehensive strategies to address violence against journalists.

Last March, Armando Lopez Linares, the director of the Monitor Michoacan news website, was reportedly shot at least eight times outside his home in Zitácuaro in Michoacan state.

The Guardian reported that he was the eighth Mexican journalist killed this year, compared with nine in the whole of last year. Other journalists murdered in the country this year include Heber Lopez, Margarito Martinez Esquivel, Lourdes Maldonado Lopez, Jose Luis Gamboa, Roberto Toledo, Juan Carlos Muñiz, and Jorge Camero.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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