Politics

Journalist shot to death in southern Mexico, 5th in 2022

Mexico City, Feb 10 (EFE).- Journalist Heber Lopez Vasquez, 39, was shot to death Thursday in the port of Salina Cruz, in the state of Oaxaca, southern Mexico, relatives told EFE.

The crime is the fifth murder that occurs in Mexico against journalists so far in 2022.

Lopez Vasquez was director of the Noticias Web portal and his death was confirmed by his brother Irving Lopez Vasquez, who also works in media.

The motive for the crime is so far unknown and, according to reports from the Salina Cruz municipal police, there are already two people in custody.

In a statement, the Oaxaca State Attorney General’s Office (FGEO) said it is investigating the two detainees “for their probable responsibility” in the journalist’s murder.

He said that after the attack, the probable perpetrators fled, but the municipal police of Salina Cruz detained them and confiscated a firearm.

López Vásquez was shot five times in his office, located in the center of the city, at about 8 pm local time Thursday (02:00 GMT on Friday).

The place remains guarded by agents of the National Guard and the State Investigation Agency.

Irving Lopez Vasquez said his brother “was with his son when he was murdered,” while demanding justice for his crime.

According to the Article 19 organization, the journalist had reported attacks against him to them in 2019.

Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat headed a Security Roundtable on Tuesday at the Ixtepec military installations to coordinate actions to guarantee peace and tranquility in the region.

From January 2015 to December 2021, the Ombudsman for the Human Rights of the People of Oaxaca has opened 288 investigations from complaints related to violations of the rights of journalists.

Mexico, considered the deadliest country for the press, is experiencing unprecedented violence at the beginning of 2022 due to the murder of at least five journalists, two of them in Tijuana, on the border with the United States.

On Sunday, the murder of Ernesto Islas Flores was recorded in Tijuana, who was editor of the Notiredes portal in that border city and whose father and uncle are journalists.

On Wednesday, the Mexican government announced the arrest of three suspects involved in the murder of journalist Lourdes Maldonado, which occurred on Jan. 23 and whose death in Tijuana sparked a national mobilization against violence against the press.

Maldonado’s murder shook the country because in March 2019 she had publicly requested protection from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, due to a legal problem she had with Jaime Bonilla, former governor of Baja California of the ruling National Regeneration Movement.

Not counting Thursday’s case in Oaxaca, the NGO Article 19 records 149 journalists killed for their work from 2000 to date, 29 of them during Lopez Obrador’s term, which began in December 2018.

After a crime in December 2018 and 10 in 2019, the country registered seven homicides of communicators in 2020 and another 7 in 2021 and the four occurred in January 2022. EFE

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