The journalist, who was one of four individuals killed inside a club in central Mexico, is at least the thirteenth member of the media to perish in the nation this year.
Mayor of San Luis de la Paz Luis Sánchez stated that Ernesto Méndez, editor-in-chief of the news website Tu Voz, or Your Voice, was attacked together with four other men. According to him, the fifth individual was rushed to a hospital after being gravely injured.
Diego Rodrguez Vallejo, the governor of Guanajuato, “strongly condemned” the murders on Tuesday evening through Twitter on Wednesday.
According to Sánchez, it is currently unknown whether the attack had anything to do with Méndez’s journalism, his capacity as a representative of neighborhood companies during the preparation of a forthcoming fair, or some other activity.
organization for press freedom The government was obligated by Article 19 to provide safety for Méndez’s relatives and coworkers.
According to Carmen Martnez, the news website Zona Franca’s director, Méndez had also worked there up until three years ago.
According to AFP, Zona Franca claimed that he had previously received threats. According to the report, he was at a party with family and friends when his family’s tavern came under attack.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Méndez was a participant in the federal government’s protection scheme for threatened journalists and human rights advocates.
While small-town officials or politicians with political or criminal objectives are frequently suspects in journalist deaths, organized crime is frequently implicated as well. In Mexico’s interior, journalists working for small news organizations are simple prey.
Due to turf warfare between competing gangs vying for control of transportation routes for drugs and stolen fuel, Guanajuato, a flourishing industrial zone, has grown to be one of Mexico’s most violent states.
Other Mexican journalists killed in 2022
In June, while he and his daughter, 23, were leaving their home, journalist Antonio de la Cruz was fatally murdered in northeastern Mexico. Later, his daughter passed away from injuries sustained in the attack that claimed her father’s life.
In the Gulf coast state of Veracruz in May, two news site coworkers were fatally shot. The director and a reporter, respectively, of the online news outlet El Veraz in Cosoleacaque, Yessenia Mollinedo Falconi and Sheila Johana Garca Olivera, were both murdered, according to the Veracruz State Prosecutor’s Office.
Reporter Armando Linares was allegedly shot dead at a residence in the town of Zitacuaro in March, according to prosecutors in the western state of Michoacan. His murder occurred six weeks after the death of a colleague from the same publication, Monitor Michoacan, named Roberto Toledo. In a video uploaded to social media on January 31, Linares made the announcement of Toledo’s passing.
Juan Carlos Muiz, who covered crime for the online news outlet Testigo Minero in the state of Zacatecas, was shot and killed by gunmen at the beginning of March.
Jorge Camero, the director of an online news outlet who was until recently a municipal worker in the northern state of Sonora, was assassinated in late February.
Heber López, the editor-in-chief of the news website Noticias Web, was fatally shot in the southern state of Oaxaca at the beginning of February.
On January 23, a shot victim was discovered inside a car in Tijuana. Her name was Lourdes Maldonado López. Maldonado Lopez confided in Mexico’s president that she feared for her life during a press appearance in 2019.
The Gulf coast state of Veracruz saw the death of reporter José Luis Gamboa on January 10.
Margarito Martnez, a crime photographer, was shot and killed on January 17 in front of his Tijuana residence. Martinez collaborated with Guillermo Arias for a long time; his photos document life and death in the streets of Tijuana.
He thought back on how difficult it had been to report on his friend and colleague journalist’s murder.
“His daughter arrived and asked me not to photograph her dad’s body,” Arias told CBS News.