With two attacks a day and almost total impunity, the violence against journalists is perpetuated in a Mexico with ineffective protection measures and daily criticism of the media by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “Killing journalists in Mexico has no consequences.
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At best, it can be possible for some material author, who pulled the trigger, to be prosecuted, but the intellectual authors will not necessarily be reached,” said the director for Mexico and Central America of the NGO Article 19, Leopoldo Maldonado.
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The chilling figures have led organizations such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF) to describe the country as the “deadliest” for the press in the world.
According to Article 19, Mexico sum 148 journalists killed for their work from 2000 to date, 28 of them during the mandate of Andres Manuel Lopez Obradorwhich started in December 2018.
After one crime in December 2018 and ten in 2019, the country registered 7 homicides of communicators in 2020 and another 7 in 2021. But the slight downward trend of recent years has been cut short this January with the death of three reporters : José Luis Gamboa in the port of Veracruz (Veracruz), and Margarito Martínez and Lourdes Maldonado in Tijuana (Baja California). “I also come here to ask for support, help and labor justice, because I even fear for my life,” Lourdes Maldonado said in March 2019 in one of López Obrador’s daily conferences at the National Palace, referring to a “lawsuit” that he had with the now ex-governor of Baja California Jaime Bonilla, of the ruling party.
His case is a reflection of the ineffectiveness of protection measures and of a reality that goes beyond presidential promises. “We see with great concern that Mexico continues to be a high-risk country for practicing journalism,” the executive director of Amnesty International (AI) Mexico, Edith Olivares, told Efe.
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Article 19 documented 362 attacks in the first half of 2021, one every twelve hours. “The violence is growing and has not been contained,” said Leopoldo Maldonado, and lamented the inability of the Mexican state, both the federal government and local authorities.
As in most crimes in Mexico, impunity in attacks against journalists is almost total. In fact, the Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes Committed against Freedom of Expression opened around 3,000 investigations since 2010 but only obtained 22 convictions, according to Article 19.
Although the violence it is “structural” in Mexico, the “sources of origin” of the attacks on the press make it more difficult, if possible, to prevent these crimes, Jade Ramírez Cuevas, a member of the Red Periodistas de a Pie, explained to Efe.
“The social contract has been broken and practically any ruler, official and politician, in collusion with organized crime, can attempt” against the lives of journalists, said the expert, also concerned about “job insecurity” and the lack of ” responsibility of the owners” of means.
Article 19 reported that public officials inflicted 83 attacks of the 362 registered between January and June 2021, which leads to many cases not being investigated. In 81 cases there were not “sufficient elements” to prove the perpetrator of the attack, while in 79 the attack was at the hands of an “individual” and in 56 cases it was carried out by a “political party”. While organized crime would be behind 12 attacks.
Since 2012, Mexico has had the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which currently has 1,504 beneficiaries, 493 of them journalists. According to the Ministry of the Interior (Segob), this figure implies an increase of 88 percent compared to the 798 beneficiaries of 2018. Maldonado stressed that this year, and despite the elimination of a trust, the budget of the mechanism will be increased by 56 percent.
“But it will be insufficient,” he warned. The problem with this federal mechanism is that it does not seek a “comprehensive policy” that addresses the causes of violence, warned Olivares, from Amnesty. “It is designed for reactivity … and does not prevent attacks,” he added. Jade Ramírez Cuevas is a sad and paradoxical example of the usefulness of the mechanism.
Years ago he received several death threats, first for his coverage of the opposition to a dam and later for his defense of journalists and defenders. And between 2012 and 2015 he was part of the Governing Board of this mechanism as a representative of civil society.
“It generated new risks, threats and attacks for me. (…) And we went to international bodies to have guarantees of protection,” explained Ramírez Cuevas, noting that for years Periodistas de a Pie has “dissociated itself” from the organization.
Every time a journalist is killed, López Obrador condemns the violence and promises speedy justice and freedom of expression.
“In the case of the companion who was murdered in Tijuana, I have already given instructions because we are going to carry out a thorough investigation,” he said Tuesday from the National Palace.
He recalled that Lourdes Maldonado was not part of the federal protection mechanism and attributed the existing violence to decades of “neoliberalism.”
But in López Obrador’s speech the attacks on a good part of the press continue, which he describes as “fifi” (conservative). Even on Wednesdays, in his “morning” media, there is a section to uncover the “lies” of the media.
“From public power the press is disqualified and stigmatized,” said Maldonado, who lamented that the president’s words generate a “cascade effect” that reaches the entire political class, which is already “profoundly intolerant of criticism and to public scrutiny.
EFE
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