One year on, justice continues to elude slain Mexican journalist

By Manuel Ayala

Tijuana, Mexico, Jan 17 (EFE).- A year after the murder of Mexican photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel, his family, friends and colleagues demanded justice in the Mexican city of Tijuana, on the border with the United States, on Tuesday.

During this year, the State Attorney General’s Office has only prosecuted three people who participated as material authors of the murder, of which two have already received sentences through a fast-track procedure.

However, the intellectual author, David ‘N’, alias “El Cabo 20”, who is being held for another crime, has not been prosecuted, nor has he been legally linked to Margarito’s murder.

In a statement to media, the Yo sí soy periodista group said that the security and law enforcement authorities of Baja California and Mexico “have acted inadequately and opaquely by not conducting the proper investigation.”

“We are not going to rest until there is complete justice in our country, without reservations or favoritism, without deals between power and crime, with all the transparency that our authorities are minimally capable of,” it said.

Margarito Martínez’s family members and friends also gathered on Tuesday at the iconic Plaza Cívica in Tijuana to pay tribute to him and honor his memory on the first anniversary of his death.

Also present at the event was Margarito’s daughter, Johana Martínez, and his wife, Elena Frausto, who shared with the media how difficult his absence has been, both for her and her daughter.

“I know that he is with me and does not leave me and that he will always be supporting me and helping me get through everything,” Frausto said.

She said that facts still needed to be clarified and results were yet to be obtained from the investigation being carried out into her husband’s murder but added that she was satisfied by the progress that had been made and the support she had received from the state’s journalist unions.

In 2022, Mexico emerged as the most dangerous country for the media, accounting for 20 percent of the murders of journalists around the world, with 13 cases, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

According to press freedom group Article 19, a total of 157 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, possibly in connection with their work.

Of these, 37 have been killed during the term of current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office on Dec. 1, 2018. EFE

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