Mexican Media Under Attack: Two Journalists Survive Separate Hitjobs in Day

Photos of killed journalists and cameras lie outside the Veracruz state representation off
AFP

Two Mexican journalists have survived separate assassination attempts in less than a day. The attacks come at a time when three other journalists have been killed in Mexico this year.

The first attack took place on Monday early morning when a group of gunmen fired at Julio Mar Gomez as he was leaving his home in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico’s Proceso magazine reported. Gomez had been a reporter for the online news site 911 Noticias, but had recently announced his retirement after having been the target of two prior attacks. Gomez had reported on cartel violence and public corruption in Los Cabos.

During this week’s attack, the gunmen killed a law enforcement official who had been assigned by the government to Gomez as a security detail. Gomez was not injured in the most recent attempt.

On February 8, 2017, and on December 2016, unknown gunmen had torched Gomez’s cars and home in an apparent effort to threaten him into silence. 

Less than 24 hours from Gomez’s attack, unknown gunmen fired several shots at Armando Arrieta Granados, the editor-in-chief of La Opinion de Poza Rica in the Mexican state of Veracruz, Proceso magazine reported. The journalist survived the attack, but remains at a local hospital. The Veracruz Attorney General’s Office confirmed the attempt on Granados and revealed that an investigation was underway.

The two most recent attacks come days after members of the La Linea faction of the Juarez Cartel shot and killed Miroslava Breach in the city of Chihuahua. As Breitbart Texas reported, the respected journalist had uncovered the deep connections between drug cartels and Mexican politicians. Since January, three journalists, including Breach, have been murdered in Mexico.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon.  You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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