Journalist Luis Martin Sanchez Iñiguez Murder: Investigating the Attack on Press Freedom

journalistic work Luis Martin Sanchez Iñiguez is the main line of investigation into his murder, as reported by the Nayarit State Attorney General’s Office (FGJN), the body of the correspondent of La Jornada in Nayarit it was located yesterday in the town of Ahuacate, in the rural area of ​​the municipality of Tepic.

In the investigation, local authorities and elements of the National Anti-Kidnapping Coordination (Conase) are working together in order to clarify who is behind the death of Sanchez Iñiguez.

This Sunday, journalists from all over the country call a protest for the murder of Luis Martin Sanchez and violence against communicators. In Mexico City, the appointment will be at 5:00 p.m. in front of the Ministry of the Interior.

Luis Martí he would have been deprived of liberty in the community of El Armadillo on the night of Wednesday, July 5. His wife, Cecilia López Aguilar, reported the disappearance on Friday. The remains of the journalist were located this Saturday morning.

YOU CAN READ: World Press Freedom Day: 5 out of 10 murdered journalists are Latino

List of cases

The Nayarit Prosecutor’s Office reported that the cases of the correspondent for La Jornada and the communicators Osiris Maldonado de la Paz y Jonathan Lora Ramirez They are related, since according to their inquiries at some point they collaborated on joint projects related to their occupation, as well as on matters of a personal nature.

osiris maldonadoanother of the people who was reported missing, the authorities indicated that he was deprived of his liberty on Tuesday, July 4.

“There is reliable information that around 6:40 in the morning of July 3 (…) he left his home to go to work at an educational institution in this city, since that date his status is unknown. whereabouts. There is a reference that the victim worked as a communicator in digital media in previous years,” the newspaper published, citing the prosecutor’s office.

The Prosecutor’s Office mentioned that on Friday it learned of the deprivation of liberty of the also communicator Jonathan Lora Ramirez. According to a complaint, armed and hooded men arrived at his home located in the Xalisco municipality, where they entered with violence, forcing the access door and forcibly removed him, taking him aboard a family-type vehicle.

sentence to crime

The special rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Pedro Vaca, condemned “the persistence of lethal violence against the press” and reiterated the call to the authorities to investigate the facts and protect journalists at risk .

The Mexico City Human Rights Commission condemned the murder of Sanchez Iñiguez and ruled for the first line of research to focus on the journalistic work.

The Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH) demanded justice for Sanchez Iñiguez and for all the journalists in the country.

“We urge the corresponding authorities to clarify the facts,” he said on social networks.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also joined the condemnation of the murder of Sánchez Íñiguez and demanded that the authorities investigate the facts.

Journalists from Nayarit released a statement in which they sued the state governor, Miguel Ángel Navarro; to the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador; the mayoress of Tepic, Geraldine Ponce Méndez, and the mayor of Xalisco, Heriberto Castañeda; as well as the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) and the entity to exhaust all lines of investigation in the case of Sanchez Iñiguez and two other communicators who were reported missing: Jonathan Lora Ramirezalready located, and Osiris Maldonado, which has not yet been found.

In 2023, at least four more journalists have been assassinated in the country: Gerardo Torres Rentería, in Guerrero; Abisaí Pérez Romero, in Hidalgo; Ramiro Araujo Ochoa, in Baja California and Marco Aurelio Ramírez Hernández, in Puebla.

Journalists of La Jornada

With the murder of Luis Martín Sánchez, La Jornada has already accumulated three collaborators deprived of their lives for reasons related to their work, the first of them, Miroslava Breach, correspondent in Chihuahua, assassinated on March 23, 2015, two months later, Javier Valdez who was a correspondent in Sinaloa.

According to the investigations carried out by the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), these two assassinations were committed by members of the Sinaloa cartelin retaliation for his journalistic work.