Two Mexican journalists have been murdered in separate attacks since the beginning of July, raising the number of killings of journalists in the country to nine so far in 2018.
Rubén Pat Cahuich, director of the Playa News online news site, was shot dead in the street outside a bar in Playa del Carmen, in the state of Quintana Roo, on July 24. Pat Cahuich was enrolled in a government protection programme for journalists because he had received threats earlier in the spring. Last year, he was allegedly beaten, jailed and threatened by the local police in Playa del Carmen after he wrote about links between local officials and criminal groups.
Pat Cahuich is the second Playa News journalist killed within the past month after José Guadalupe Chan Dzib, who was reportedly shot dead in a bar in the village of Sabán, in the municipality of José María Morelos, on June 29. Chan Dzib worked as a crime reporter with Playa News.
Playa News called on the government of Quintana Roo and the state’s attorney general to investigate the killings of the two journalists and bring the persons responsible for the murders to justice.
“You don’t kill the truth by killing journalists”, the site stated.
Earlier this month, Luis Pérez García, the 80-year-old director of the magazine Encuesta de Hoy, was found dead in the rubble of his burnt house in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. It was first thought that Pérez García had died of asphyxiation or burns. Investigators later concluded that Pérez García had been killed with a blow to the head before the house was set on fire on July 10.
Mexico is the world’s second deadliest country for journalists so far in 2018, according to IPI’s Death Watch. All nine journalists killed this year appear to have been targeted for their work. Only in one case have the alleged killers been arrested.
International Press Institute (IPI) Deputy Director Scott Griffen condemned the killings.
“Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised a new start for Mexico and that must include prioritizing ending the cycle of impunity for the murders of journalists”, Griffen said. “The fight against crime and corruption in Mexico will not be won without journalists who can live and work without fear.”
IPI, a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists for media freedom, urged López Obrador and outgoing President Enrique Peña Nieto after the July 1 presidential to ensure journalist safety.
The Vienna-based IPI was set up by editors, media executives, journalists and academics in 1950 to safeguard media freedom and journalist safety. IPI has been compiling annual data on the killings of journalists since 1997, as part of its press freedom and safety of journalist programmes. As many as 56 journalists have been killed around the world so far in 2018.
List of journalists killed in Mexico in 2018 so far:
1. Carlos Domínguez Rodríguez on January 13, 2018
2. Pedro Damián Gómez found dead on February 13, 2018
3. Leobardo Vázquez Atzin on March 21, 2018
4. Juan Carlos Huerta on May 15, 2018
5. Alicia Díaz González on May 25, 2018
6. Héctor Gonzalez Antonio on May 29, 2018
7. José Guadalupe Chan Dzib on June 29, 2018
8. Luis Pérez García on July 10, 2018
9. Rubén Pat Cahuich on July 23, 2018
