Mexican Journalists Fear for Their Safety After Three Killings So Far This Year

Journalists in Tijuana, Mexico are taking stock of their circumstances and expressing outrage and fear after two reporters were murdered in the famous border town in less than a week, the third killed in Mexico already this year that affirm the country’s status as one of the most dangerous places in the world for reporters, NPR Reports. The motives for the killings are not clear, but that’s not stopping reporters in Tijuana from trying to be more conscious of their surroundings, and just more alert. Lourdes Maldonado was killed on January 23, 2022 after just recently winning a protracted labor dispute with a previous employer, PSN, a media company owned by the former governor of Baja California, Jaime Bonilla. She expressed concern that possessing proof of malfeasance by the ex-governor, who has denied any involvement in her murder, could put her in danger. Photographer Margarito Martinez was killed six days earlier as he got into his car outside his home in Tijuana to head to a crime scene.

Martinez had recently had a public spat with a man who posts about local crime on social media. The crime blogger had accused Martinez of running social media sites on behalf of a criminal group. Authorities have said they’re investigating both murders and have not said whether Martinez and Maldonado were targeted because they were journalists. More than 1,900 people were killed in Tijuana just last year, one of the highest annual body counts for any city in a country where nine reporters were killed in 2021. Both Martinez and Maldonado had reportedly asked for state police protection. Only about 2 percent of murders in Mexico are ever solved.