Mexico: Journalists protest rising violence; gunman and baby killed in latest crime
MEXICO CITY: Journalists from the southern Mexican state of Guerrero protested to demand government protection, while calling on international organizations to intercede amidst a growing wave of violence.
Some 80 journalists participated in the protest march in Chilpancingo, the state capital, saying that they would carry out similar demonstrations every month.
In a joint statement, the journalists said Guerrero “has collapsed because of narco-violence, impunity and institutional corruption,” adding that no progress had been made in the investigations regarding the murders of reporters Francisco Pacheco, in April 2016, and Cecilio Pineda, in March 2017.
The statement calls on international organizations to review the “precarious situation” that reporters must face in Mexico and especially in Guerrero.
The statement also accuses Guerrero Governor Hector Astudillo of having named as head of the state protection system for journalists a person linked to organized crime groups.
The Pacific resort city of Acapulco, located in Guerrero, is one of the cities that has most been affected by crime and violence in Mexico.
A recent report from the nonprofit Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice said that Acapulco was the third most violent city in the world in 2017, with a homicide rate of 106.6 per 100,000 residents, just behind the resort town of Los Cabos, Mexico, and the capital of Venezuela, Caracas.
Last year, 12 journalists were murdered in Mexico because of their work, the same number as in Syria, and at least 115 journalists have been killed in Mexico since the year 2000.
Meanwhile, an infant and a gunman died and 15 other people were wounded in connection with an attack here on a high-ranking official of the western Mexican state of Jalisco, authorities said Tuesday.
Jalisco Labor Secretary Luis Carlos Najera, who once served as the state’s attorney general, was slightly wounded in the hand when a group of between 15 and 20 gunmen opened fire on the official as he left a restaurant in Guadalajara, the state capital.
A half- dozen other people were wounded in the gun attack.
After attempting to kill Najera, the assailants blocked major roads and set fire to two vehicles, which caused the death of an 8-monthold baby and left 8 other people injured.
The baby’s mother was taken to a hospital where she is in critical condition, with burns on 90 per cent of her body, Yannick Nordin, head of the Jalisco Medical Emergency Services, said in a press conference.
Jalisco Gov Aristoteles Sandoval said police launched an operation after the attack, leading to the capture of six gunmen in possession of a “large arsenal.”
One of the gunmen arrested at the scene, who was identified by authorities as Pedro Antonio N., died at a Guadalajara hospital because of a heart attack, the Jalisco state Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
Authorities said that the arrested suspects told investigators that they belonged to the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel, which is active in at least 20 of Mexico’s 31 states. — Bernama