A team of gunmen in Central Mexico ambushed and killed a journalist as he drove home from work. The slaying marks the 19th murder of a journalist in Mexico this year and the second of its kind since a new president took office.
This week, 35-year-old Diego Garcia Corona was driving in Ecatepec, Mexico State, when a group of unknown gunmen ambushed and shot him several times inside his car. As Mexica authorities responded to he the scene, they found Garcia slumped over the driver’s side of the vehicle. Inside the vehicle, Mexico State investigators found a work ID that revealed that Garcia was an employee at a weekly publication called Semanario Morelos.
The murder was condemned on social media by Jesus Ramirez Cuevas, the new head of communications for Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The new president is also known as AMLO.
Condenamos el homicidio de Diego García Corona, reportero del semanario Morelos, #Edomex y externamos condolencias a su familia. Trabajamos en un plan de prevención, protección, acceso a la justicia y reparación del daño que dé garantías a periodistas #LibertadDeExpresión
— Jesús Ramírez Cuevas (@JesusRCuevas) December 6, 2018
Ramirez also condemned last week’s murder of print journalist Jesus Alejandro Marquez Jimenez.
Lamentamos profundamente el asesinato de Jesús Alejandro Márquez Jiménez, periodista y director de Orión Informativo (Nayarit) y externamos nuestras condolencias a sus familiares. No descansaremos hasta lograr un México donde exista justicia, libertad de expresión y seguridad.
— Jesús Ramírez Cuevas (@JesusRCuevas) December 3, 2018
As Breitbart News reported over the weekend, authorities in the western state of Nayarit found the body of Jesus Alejandro Marquez Jimenez who went missing just one day before. The journalist was the director of Orion Informativo and also worked with several other outlets.
Other Journalists Murdered in 2018:
- October 24 — Gabriel Soriano Kuri, a radio journalist in Acapulco, Guerrero who was murdered by a team of gunmen as he returned from covering a public event hosted by the governor of that state.
- October 3 – Sergio Martinez Gonzalez, an online print journalist in Chiapas who exposed public corruption in the State of Chiapas. Martinez claimed he received threats prior to his murder.
- September 28 — Arturo Porcallo Eguiluz, a radio journalist an DJ in Guerrero for Radio y Television de Guerrero (RTG). A motive for his murder has not been released.
- September 21—Mario Leonel Gomez Sanchez, a political journalist for El Heraldo de Chiapas. He had been the target of threats in 2016 after reporting on embezzlement by public officials in the state.
- August 29 — Javier Rodriguez Valladares was a cameraman and TV journalist for Canal 10 in Cancun, Quintana Roo. He was shot along one of the main avenues in the tourist hotspot.
- August 8 — Rodolfo Garcia Gonzalez was a freelance photographer who often worked with Semanario7. He was shot and killed in Guanajuato.
- July 24 — Ruben Pat Cauich was a veteran journalist who founded the online outlet La Playa News in Quintana Roo, not far from Cancun. He had been previously threatened and was ultimately killed at a bar in the tourist hotspot of Playa Del Carmen.
- July 3 — José Guadalupe Chan Dzib was a crime reporter for La Playa News, Aqui y Ahora, and other local outlets near Cancun, Quintana Roo. He was gunned down outside of a local bar in Playa Del Carmen.
- May 29 — Hector Gonzales Antonio was a national correspondent for Excelsior and worked in various local outlets. He was kidnapped, tortured, and dumped in a vacant lot.
- May 24 — Alicia Diaz Gonzalez, a financial writer for one of Mexico’s largest publications, was found beaten to death in her home in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.
- May 14 — Juan Carlos Huerta Martínez, a reporter and broadcast host, was killed by a team of gunmen outside his home in Tabasco.
- March 21 — Leobardo Vázquez Atzin ran the online news site Enlace Informativo Regional in Veracruz who reported on a local mayor tied to an illicit property grab and was killed by a team of gunmen.
- February 14 — Pedro Damián Gómez Bonifaz, director-owner of the Panorama Político, was found dead with obvious signs of trauma caused by a sharp-edged weapon at his home in Tijuana, Baja California.
- February 5 — Leslie Ann Pamela Montenegro del Real, a popular YouTube satirist and blogger who used the pseudonym “La Nana Pelucas,” was gunned down while eating dinner at a restaurant in Acapulco.
- January 21 — Agustín Silva Vásquez, a freelance police reporter from El Sol del Istmo, disappeared in Matías Romero, Oaxaca, according to his family members who reported his kidnapping. Silva Vásquez is presumed dead.
- January 13 — Carlos Dominguez Rodriguez was ambushed and killed by a team of assassins in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, who stabbed him to death in front of his family. Authorities arrested a relative of the former mayor of Nuevo Laredo and several other individuals allegedly linked to the case.
- January 6 — José Gerardo Martínez Arriaga, an editor with El Universal, was purchasing toys for his family in Mexico City when he was robbed and killed at gunpoint.
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. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.