The impunity that frames the murders of journalists has become the norm in Mexico, with close to 90% of cases without justice.
Between 2006 and 2021, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has documented at least 128 homicides committed against journalists in our country, of which only 17 have been resolved, which This means that at least 86% of these crimes remain unpunished.
Data from the UNESCO Observatory on murdered journalists, which is based on information provided by the country in which the murder took place, show that from 1998 to 2021, Mexico is the second country with the most murders of journalists worldwide (only below Iraq, but above Syria).
According to the 2018 Director-General’s Report on the safety of journalists and the danger of impunity, a journalist or media staff member is killed every four days in the world.
In the case of Mexico, the data indicates that crimes have been on the rise since 2009.
The figures also show that, until last year, a hundred investigations were still ongoing, while at least four remained unresolved when they were archived, which are about the murder of Gerardo Nieto Álvarez, completed on June 26, 2015. ; the death of María de Rosario Fuentes Rubio, on October 15, 2014; the case of Antonio Gamboa Urías, assassinated on October 10, 2014 and that of Nolberto Herrera Rodríguez, attacked on July 29, 2014.
In these cases, the authorities decided to file them, since “there was no convincing evidence to prove that the events in which he lost his life were derived from his journalistic activity.”
Cases in the current administration
With at least 34 murders of journalists reported from December 2018 to December 2021, in the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador only three homicides have been resolved (two in 2019 and one in 2020), with which the impunity of the cases reaches up to 90 percent.
These are the cases of Jesús Alfonso Piñuelas, attacked on February 11, 2020; that of Santiago Barroso, murdered on March 15, 2019 and that of Rafael Murúa Manríquez, who was attacked on January 20, 2019.
Of the homicides perpetrated from 2006 to 2021, 57 were print media workers; 28 worked at a radio station; 10 on television; 24 in digital media and the rest in some multiplatform. Of the total cases, 17 were women.
maritza.perez@eleconomista.mx