On one day, five journalists from Mexico were injured by gunshots, marking the most severe instance of violence against the country’s media in over a decade.
On Tuesday, four photographers were injured by gunfire near a military base in Guerrero, Mexico. They had just finished covering a recent homicide in the city of Chilpancingo, which experiences frequent violent crimes. The state’s prosecutors are treating it as an attempted murder case.
Later that day, journalist Maynor Ramón Ramírez and a friend were injured by gunshots in the nearby state of Michoacán.
During his press briefing on Wednesday, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, expressed his regret for the Guerrero shooting. However, he did not provide any details about the potential reason behind the attack.
The recent shootings occurred shortly after three journalists were kidnapped and kept captive for several days in Taxco, located in Guerrero state. They were eventually set free, but the reason for their abduction remains unknown.
The state of Guerrero has witnessed violent conflicts between approximately twelve drug gangs and cartels. Similarly, the state of Michoacán has been plagued with turf battles between the Jalisco cartel and local gangs.
The recent incidents of shootings and kidnappings on Tuesday are among the most significant instances of violence against journalists in a single location in Mexico since a day in the beginning of 2012. During that time, the bodies of three news photographers were discovered in plastic bags in a canal in the city of Veracruz, located on the Gulf coast. The Zetas drug cartel, which was previously influential, was held responsible for these murders.
In the beginning of this month, a photographer working for a newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, which is located on the Mexican border, was discovered deceased from gunshot wounds in his vehicle. This marks the fifth occurrence of a journalist being murdered in Mexico thus far in the year 2023.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has reported at least 54 journalist deaths in Mexico in the last five years.
Source: theguardian.com
