Another journalist has been killed in Mexico. Michoacán State Attorneys have confirmed the murder of journalist Armando Linares López, director of the local news portal Monitor Michoacán. He was shot dead in his home in the town of Zitácuaro, about 150 kilometers west of Mexico City.
“Our only defense is a pen, a pencil”
Linares’ murder came just a month and a half after the killing of Roberto Toledo, an employee of the same media outlet. He also died in Zitácuaro.
The journalist Roberto Toledo was murdered in this house in the western Mexican city of Zitácuaro at the end of January
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It is the eighth journalist murder in Mexico since the beginning of the year. After the assassination of Toledo on January 31, Linares denounced threats against him and his team for exposing corruption cases in an emotional video speech. “We are not armed, we carry no weapons. Our only defense is a pen, a pencil,” Linares exclaimed imploringly in the video.
Mexico the most dangerous country for journalists
Parts of the western Mexican state of Michoacán are among the most dangerous areas in the country. Heavily armed drug cartels fight each other there for control of areas. It’s not just about drug trafficking, but also about extortion of protection money against producers of the important export goods avocado and lime.
Avocado producers in Michoacán are also allegedly being put under pressure by drug cartels with protection rackets
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The work of journalists in Mexico is life-threatening. According to the organization Reporters Without Borders, around 150 journalists have been killed in the country since 2000, and seven had to die in 2021. The North American state was the most dangerous country for journalists for the third year in a row. It is often drug cartels and corrupt local politicians who take action against the press. According to the government, more than 90 percent of attacks go unpunished.
At the beginning of March, the European Parliament called on the Mexican authorities to “guarantee the protection and creation of a safe environment for journalists and human rights defenders”. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador then accused the European Parliament of supporting a “coup strategy” by its opponents.
sti / kle (afp, dpa, rtr)
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