3rd Mexican Journalist Murdered In 1 Week — 10th in 2019

A group of gunmen shot and killed a Mexican journalist in his home in Veracruz. The murder comes just hours after another group of hitmen killed a journalist in an unrelated case in Guerrero. The murder marks the third of its kind this week, the tenth in 2019, and the twelfth of its kind since Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in December.

The murder took place Thursday night in the city of Actopan, Veracruz, when a group of gunmen shot and killed Jorge Celestino Ruiz, a journalist with El Grafico de Xalapa,  the press freedom group Periodistas Desplazados reported. According to Mexico’s Milenio, Ruiz had been the target of a failed assassination attempt in 2018 and had been the target of threats in recent days.

#AlertaGUARDIAN #Veracruz Jorge Celestino Ruiz Vázquez, reportero del diario Gráfico de #Xalapa, fue asesinado poco después de las nueve de la noche hoy en la localidad de La Bocanita, en Actopan por hombres armados. #NosEstanMatando pic.twitter.com/7HxHxtvpic

— ALERTAS Periodistas Desplazados y Riesgo México (@AlertaPDMX) August 3, 2019

Ruiz’s murder is the third murder of a journalist in Mexico in just one week. Just hours before Ruiz’s murder, another group of gunmen shot and killed a journalist in front of a group of children in the coastal state of Guerrero, Breitbart News reported. Edgar Alberto Nava Lopez was the editor and director of the online news outlet La Verdad de Zihuatanejo and also worked as a city official in that municipality. The murder took place as Nava led a group of children through a series of summer activities in the city’s beach. A team of gunmen went up to the journalists and began firing in front of the children. The children were not physically hurt.

On Tuesday, authorities in the central Mexican state of Morelos found the body of Rogelio Barragan, 47, a journalist with online outlet Guerrero Al Instante. The victim was bound and tortured before being placed in the trunk of a Volkswagen Jetta, Breitbart News reported.

The three murders of Mexican journalists also come at the same time that the newspaper El Monitor de Parral was forced out of print following an attack with Molotov cocktails, Breitbart News reported. The fire, started by the attackers, trapped several employees inside the building. Firefighters successfully rescued the employees. Following the attack, the newspaper announced they would stop their print product and would not cover crime or politically controversial stories online.

Other Murdered Mexican Journalists in 2019

• Norma Sarabia Garduza –a journalist for Tabasco Hoy, died after a team of masked gunmen ambushed her outside her home on June 12. She was a crime and police reporter for more than 15 years. Sarabia received various death threats in the past from corrupt law enforcement.
• Francisco Romero – a journalist for Ocurrio Aqui and Playa News, was beaten to death outside a bar in Playa Del Carmen on May 16. Prior to his murder, Romero received numerous death threats and requested government protection.
• Rafael Urua Manriquez — the general director of Radio Kashana, a community station based in Santa Rosalia, Baja California, which reported on human rights, gender issues, alternative lifestyles, reproductive health, and ecology was murdered on January 21.
• Jesus Eugenio Ramos Rodriguez— longtime journalist and host of the radio show “Nuestra Region Hoy” in Emiliano Zapata, Tabasco. Ramos was murdered by a lone gunman while eating breakfast on February 10. His case remains unsolved.
• Reynaldo Lopez – a radio journalist from Hermosillo, Sonora. Lopez was in a vehicle with a colleague when a team of gunmen ambushed and fired multiple times on February 16.
• Santiago Barroso Alfaro—a print and radio journalist from the border state of Sonora. Barroso was gunned down while opening the door to his home in San Luis Rio Colorado on March 15.
• Omar Ivan Camacho – a radio journalist covering local sports and also managed a related website. He was thrown off an overpass after reporting on a baseball game in Sinaloa on March 25.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. 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 Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.