Another journalist murdered in Mexico. Yesterday, Thursday, February 10, journalist Heber López Vásquez was killed in the municipality of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca. With him, there are now five journalists murdered so far in 2022.
According to media in Mexico, Heber López died at the entrance to his workplace, a recording studio from which the media outlet Noticias Web operated.
So far, and according to the Oaxaca Prosecutor's Office, Two people have been arrested as alleged perpetrators of the murder.
From January 1 to February 9, 2022, four journalists have been killed in Mexico, and yesterday, another journalist was murdered. A list that adds to a long history during the six-year term led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Read also: Another attack on the press in Mexico leaves one dead
The Public Security Secretariat of the southern state specified that Heber López died after being shot while he was heading to his vehicle after finishing his work. This is how another journalist is murdered in Mexico.
For his part, the Attorney General of Oaxaca, Arturo Peimbert, confirmed that there are two people detained as alleged perpetrators of the crime.
According to the non-profit organization Article 19Heber covered topics related to municipal police, as well as irregularities in the federal government's Salina Cruz Breakwater project.
«In 2019, Heber reported through his Twitter account threats from a security guard of the then mayor of Salina Cruz, Juan Carlos Atecas.»
Faced with the facts, Article 19 He demanded that the Oaxaca Government Prosecutor's Office initiate a diligent and objective investigation based on the Homologated Protocol to investigate crimes against freedom of expression and not rule out his journalistic work as a motive for the crime.
She also called on the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists to contact family members, colleagues and friends as soon as possible in order to provide the necessary protective measures.
We must remember that in January, José Luis Gamboa, director of an internet portal, was murdered in the state of Veracruz; independent photographer Margarito Martínez and journalist Lourdes Maldonado in the border city of Tijuana, as well as Roberto Toledo, a contributor to the news portal Michoacan Monitor, who was shot in the city of Zitácuaro in Michoacán.
Without a doubt, the press in Mexico is going through one of its worst moments, because in addition to being a job that is not well paid in the country, reporters put their lives at risk by reporting critical issues in different areas. A situation that has not gone unnoticed and has generated protests and reactions of rejection by national and international organizations.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based press protection advocacy organization, nine journalists were killed in the country in 2021.
However, to date, the vast majority of the crimes remain unsolved.
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