(Mexico) A sixth journalist was murdered on Friday since the beginning of the year in Mexico, in the locality considered the most dangerous in the country, in the heart of a region caught in the grip of the war between the two main cartels from the country.
Posted yesterday at 7:05 p.m.
Journalist and taxi driver, Juan Carlos Muniz alias “Rigoberto” was shot dead in his vehicle by unknown persons who managed to flee in Fresnillo in the state of Zacatecas (north).
His assassination and his status as a journalist were immediately confirmed by official sources. “I condemn the act that this afternoon targeted Fresnillo Juan Carlos Muñiz, who worked for the information portal Testigo Minero. We express our solidarity with his relatives, friends and colleagues, ”said the governor of the state of Zacatecas (north), David Monreal, on Twitter.
The governor, a member of the ruling party Morena (left), asked the courts “to shed light on the facts and find those responsible as soon as possible”.
The prosecution has announced the opening of an investigation, contacting a government mechanism for the protection of journalists supposed to defend them when they are threatened.
Crimes against journalists (about 150 in 20 years) generally go unpunished.
Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, due to the violence of drug traffickers, the powerlessness of the authorities to defend them, and the collusion of politicians with organized crime, which journalists denounce.
Many writers in a precarious situation also find it difficult to make a living from their profession, and must make ends meet with other activities.
“The cowardly assassination of our colleague and friend has upset a large part of Fresnillo’s society, as well as the entire journalistic corporation,” the news site Testigo Minero wrote on its Facebook page.
Ten bodies in front of the governor’s palace
The locality of Fresnillo in the mining state of Zacatecas is the most dangerous in Mexico, according to a survey in January indicating that 96% of its approximately 240,000 inhabitants feel insecure.
The historic heart of colonial Mexico, Zacatecas has descended into violence in recent months as it has become the battleground between the two main Mexican cartels, Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa of “Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life sentence in the States. -United.
At the beginning of January, ten bodies were found in an abandoned van in the historic center of the city of Zacatecas, in front of the governor’s palace.
The President of the Republic, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, had denounced “an act of provocation”, evoking himself “clashes between groups”.
In November, the same AMLO-his initials and his nickname-had moved with his entire government to Zacatecas to announce security reinforcements after the discovery of a total of fifteen bodies hanging from bridges in a few days. This process bears the signature of the cartels in the violent war they wage.
A total of six journalists or contributors to information sites have been killed in Mexico since the beginning of the year.
Two of them were executed in Tijuana, the border town with the United States to the northwest. Among the victims is also the director of an information site in the state of Veracruz (east) and the collaborator of an information site in Michoacan (west).