»Video footage shows missing Mexican journalists bound hand and foot«
Media rights organizations expressed alarm on Wednesday for three Mexican journalists who may have been kidnapped by drug traffickers two weeks ago in a region they control. Jesus Pintor Alegre, Fernando Moreno Villegas, and Alan Garcia Aguilar, employees of the news website Escenario Calentano, went missing in Guerrero state on December 27.
Two of the missing journalists seem handcuffed and footcuffed in a video shared by anonymous users on social media. One of the journalists said that they are “paying the consequences” for their coverage of the deadly southern region.
— SDP News (@sdpnews) on January 10, 2023
Balbina Flores, a spokeswoman for Reporters Without Borders (RFS), told AFP that the location where the journalists went missing is “very difficult, very complex, controlled almost 100 percent by the Familia Michoacana”
RSF, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and partner rights organization Article 19 issued a combined appeal to the authorities to “find the journalists immediately,” and give protection to the journalists’ families and other media workers in the area.
In addition, the Guerrero State Human Rights Commission released a statement seeking an investigation.
Mexico is regarded as one of the most dangerous countries in which to work as a journalist. According to RSF, more than 150 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since the year 2000.
Growing public outcry in Mexico over the targeting and murder of journalists 04:43
Last month, one of the nation’s most well-known television news anchors stated that he had allegedly escaped an assassination attempt in Mexico City.
Two individuals on a motorcycle fired at Ciro Gomez Leyva while he was moving in his armored vehicle, but he was unharmed.
Police Chief Omar Garcia Harfuch stated that eleven individuals had been apprehended in connection with the attack on the journalist’s vehicle.
Officials stated that the obscure group responsible for the crime was involved in murder, extortion of merchants, and drug selling on the city’s dangerous east side. Authorities did not explain why they suspected a small-time gang attempted to murder one of the most recognized journalists in Mexico.
Gómez Leyva escaped unscathed although startled, thanks to the bulletproofing of his SUV.
During the raids and searches that led to the arrests, police discovered a cap with the initials CJNG, which stand for the hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel. However, Garcia Harfuch stated that this does not necessarily indicate that the cartel was involved.
“It is very frequent in Mexico City for criminal gangs to use names — Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco Cartel — just to communicate a link with them, without meaning they are part” he explained. As with prior arrests and searches, cartel initials have been discovered.
A top lieutenant of the Jalisco cartel threatened another journalist earlier in 2022, which was the bloodiest year for Mexican journalists and media workers in at least three decades, with 15 murders. According to Reporters Without Borders, at least ten journalists were killed because to their work.
This report was supplied by the Associated Press.
»Video footage shows missing Mexican journalists bound hand and foot«