Report: Mexico Ranked as One of Deadliest Countries for Journalists

A new report by an international press freedom organization ranks Mexico as one of the deadliest nations for journalists, bested only by Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

The new report released this week by the Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ) labels Mexico as one of the “most atrocious” cases against freedom of the press. CPJ documented 28 unsolved murders in the last 10 years, the most in the list. A caveat mentioned in the report is that the actual number could be much higher due to Mexico’s generalized violence, which makes it hard to sometimes determine motives.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has claimed to be working to punish the individuals behind the killings of media workers, however according to CPJ in 2022 alone, at least 13 were murdered.

“At the start of the year, Mexican authorities boasted about the large number of arrested suspects tied to the murders of journalists and the president’s spokesman Jesus Ramirez Cuevas claimed in March that 16 individuals had been detained in connection with the murders of 6 journalists,” the document revealed.

After being repeatedly called out publicly over the high-profile murder of journalist Javier Valdez Cardenas in 2017, Mexican authorities intensified their efforts to extradite the alleged mastermind Damaso Lopez Serrano, a former high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel. Despite the high number of arrests, there have been no convictions in the various cases. The suspects in the 2021 murder of Jacinto Romero Flores were even released due to a lack of evidence.

Hours after the release of the report, Article 19, another international press freedom group, announced a campaign:

[T]o send a powerful message and expose the violent reality in which freedom of expression and free access to information is immersed. Even though practicing journalism should not be lethal, in recent years, journalism has become the most dangerous profession, over those considered the riskiest jobs in the country.

According to Article 19, from 2000 to 2022, there have been 156 journalists murdered in connection with their work (141 men and 12 women). The majority of those took place in Veracruz. The organization figures there is one violent attack against a journalist in Mexico every 14 hours.

“For the murdered journalists, for those who continue their work even under threats, for those who report the reality in the midst of violence, for the generations of journalists who are being trained, for those who seek the truth at all costs,” Article 19 said in their statement “ For them and them, it is that the immediate end to impunity and violence is demanded.”

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “Dharma Fernández” from Baja California.