As journalists from all over Mexico continue to voice out their outrage at the murder of yet another outspoken colleague, a short glimpse of a yet unaired documentary shows a chilling interview where Ruben Espinoza unknowingly predicted his death. As reported by Breitbart Texas, Espinoza’s body was found this weekend in Mexico City where the photojournalist for Proceso and Cuarto Oscuro had been hiding out after getting numerous threats from the Governor of Veracruz Javier Duarte.
Just days before his death, Ruben Espinosa had been interviewed by a team of journalists from Spain from Cuerdos De Atar TV for an upcoming documentary. In that chilling interview, a smiling Espinosa casually talks about the dangers of his job and the likely consequences which ended up becoming true.
“That is why I left the state of Veracruz, there are no conditions and (the area’s) background,” Espinoza said in Spanish in the video. “Thirteen colleagues have been murdered, four are missing and if I am not mistaken from 2000 to now 17 exiled.”
“We are talking about … you cannot you simply cannot… you are not safe in your house either, they can just go inside and kill you and no one will do anything to help you out of fear too, of losing their life.”
In response to Espinosa’s murder, Cuerdos De Atar journalist Noemi Redondo posted the short clip with the message in Spanish “Ruben thank you for raising your voice. Now it is our turn so it doesn’t get lost.”
Espinosa’s body was found along with the bodies of four of his friends inside a Mexico City apartment. According to information released by Mexico City’s Attorney General Rodolfo Rios Garcia said the bodies had been tortured and shot.
One of the friends has since been identified as Nadia Vera, a Mexican anthropologist and activist with the movement #Yosoy132 which gained notoriety in 2012 when they took to the streets demanding transparency out of the Mexican government.
Despite the threats against Espinosa, Mexican authorities have begun to claim that the murder was in fact a robbery gone wrong in what some journalists in Mexico are calling an attempted cover-up.
Espinosa’s murder comes just days after Dallas Morning News Mexico Bureau Chief Alfredo Corchado testified before the U.S. House Sub-committee on Western Hemisphere about the lack of freedom for journalists in Mexico.
“Everyday, I walk in the shadow of more than 120,000 people killed, or disappeared in just over eight years, according to government statistics. Among them: dozens of Mexican journalists, colleagues who are more vulnerable and face a much more dangerous and precarious situation than I do,” said Corchado, who was previously forced to flee Mexico after being targeted by Los Zetas.
During his testimony Corchado talked about how after a reporter is attacked his reputation is purposely tarnished which is something that has already begun to happen in Espinosa’s case.
In his recent column for Mexico’s El Universal, Ricardo Aleman rushed to defend Veracruz’s governor Javier Duarte claiming had nothing to do with the crime and implied that Espinosa may have been involved in criminal activity.
“Just as outrageous, my Mexican colleagues say, in Mexico they still kill you twice: Once with a bullet, a blow to the head, or in a barrel of acid and then they kill you again through character assassination by spreading rumors about you, or even pressing criminal charges as we have seen repeatedly with journalists, especially those working in rural communities across Mexico,” Corchado said.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
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