Two more Mexican journalists killed as reporters condemn worsening violence
Mexican journalists have expressed alarm after two veteran reporters were attacked in their own homes in less than 24 hours, bringing this year’s death toll for media workers to nine – already surpassing the eight deaths recorded in 2020.
Fredy López Arévalo, a veteran reporter in the southern state of Chiapas, was shot in the head inside his home in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas on Thursday. López had covered Central American politics and the Zapatista uprising for news organisations such as Reuters, the Los Angeles Times and Notimex, and he still reported on the local political situation.
On the same day, Acapulco journalist Alfredo Cardoso was pulled from his home by masked gunmen who also threatened his family. He was found the next day having been shot five times, and died from his injuries in hospital on Sunday, according to press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders.
Cardoso previously worked as a photojournalist in Acapulco, a city which was once the jewel in the crown of Mexican tourist destinations but has been a hotbed of drug cartel violence for more than a decade. More recently he was the manager of the online news site Revista Dos Costas.
“The situation for journalists in Acapulco and all of Guerrero [state] has worsened,” said Bernandino
Hernández, a photojournalist in the coastal city.
“Journalists have been threatened, some have had to flee. It’s a really dicey situation,” he said.
No suspects have been arrested for either crime. Crimes committed against Mexican journalists almost always wallow in impunity – the product of inept and inadequate investigations, a lack of political will to stop the killings of media workers and frequent collusion between drug cartels.
The two attacks reinforced Mexico’s reputation as the most murderous country for journalists in the hemisphere.
The country’s murder rate has steadily risen since the then president Felipe Calderón declared a militarized crackdown on drug cartels in 2006.
In the same period, attacks on journalists have also skyrocketed. Analysts say those most at risk are reporters who cover the intersection between local politics and the drugs trade.
“These murders take place within a context of continuously deteriorating security in the country, for all citizens, but particularly for human rights defenders and journalists,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“These attacks are fueled by impunity, which is almost complete in crimes against the press. The government of [President Andrés Manuel] López Obrador has been unwilling to take any meaningful steps to strengthen the justice state or protect journalists.”
Mexico recorded 36,773 homicides in 2020, in spite of the pandemic and quarantines, according to the state statistics service INEGI – slightly higher than the 36,661 homicides registered in 2019.