On June 29, 2022, Antonio de la Cruz, a journalist for the local newspaper Expreso, was shot dead near his home in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. According to a report by the newspaper, de la Cruz was shot multiple times by a person on a motorcycle as he was driving in his car. De la Cruz died at the scene, whilst his daughter, who was also in the car and was shot in the head, died two days later. The Mexican Federal Special Prosecutor’s Office for Attention to Crimes Committed Against Freedom of Expression has opened an investigation into the killing.
Expreso has been targeted previously as well. Most notably, in December 2018, a severed human head was left in a cooler outside the newspaper’s office alongside a message threatening local journalists. Furthermore, in 2012, a car bomb exploded close to the newspaper’s office.