U.S. Embassy in Mexico Concerned About Journalists’ Killings

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico expressed its concern about the situation of journalists in the country, after the murder of communicator Heber López Vázquez, in Oaxaca.
For the facts, he considered essential a comprehensive investigation that finds those responsible.
“We are appalled by the situation of journalists in Mexico. The murder of Heber López, founder of Noticias Web, is a detestable fact. A comprehensive investigation that finds those responsible is indispensable,” the embassy said.

Read: 769 women journalists have been assaulted in the country between 2018 and 2021: Signa Lab report

We are appalled by the situation of journalists in Mexico. The murder of Heber López, founder of Noticias Web, is a detestable fact. A comprehensive investigation that finds those responsible is indispensable. #CeroImpunidad #NiUnoMás
— U.S. Embassy in Mex (@USEmbassyMEX) February 12, 2022

Heber López is the fifth communicator killed so far in 2022. In 2019 he suffered a first attack. A security guard for Mayor Juan Carlos Atecas tried to run him over and threatened him. The facts were documented by Article 19, but no protection measures were requested.

Find out: Heber López: the reporter who denounced corruption in Oaxaca cost his life
Heber’s death is in addition to the murders of José Luis Gamboa Arenas, in the port of Veracruz; photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel, and Lourdes Maldonado; the latter two, communicators from Tijuana, Baja California, who were killed just days apart.
And also to the murder of Roberto Toledo, a member of Monitor Michoacán, as a response to the journalistic work carried out by the media.
On January 25, citizens and journalists in 47 cities in 27 states of the country protested the murders of journalists, and to call for help in the face of the systematic aggressions suffered by the press in Mexico, where there are 140 communicators killed since 2000 to date.
The first cases triggered calls for protests in several states and have as a precedent a predominance of impunity in the country, which opens the way to more violence against communicators. Since 2010, the Special Prosecutor’s Office for the Attention of Crimes Committed against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) in Mexico initiated 3,419 investigations for attacks on journalists and communicators, and of these, only 28 had achieved sentences against those responsible. Less than 1% of the total number of cases.
Read: Violence against journalists in Mexico: more than 90% of crimes with impunity and insufficient protection mechanisms
Alleged Heber Killers Transferred 
This Saturday, the two people arrested as alleged murderers of journalist Heber López were transferred to the Tanivet Men’s Penitentiary Center, located in Tlacolula, in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca; they were being held in the Santo Domingo Tehuantepec prison.
In a statement, the prosecutor’s office said that the decision to transfer them is to guarantee the safety of the accused and that the hearings are held smoothly.
One of the alleged murderers of the journalist is the brother of Arminda Espinosa Cartas, former municipal agent of Salinas del Marqués, accused in several of the journalist’s notes for alleged corruption.
 
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Original source in Spanish

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