A grenade was launched against the offices of the newspaper Vanguardia, in Saltillo, in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. No one was injured, but the newspaper suffered material damages, according to CNN México.
Vanguardia is an independent newspaper that has been establishing security measures for journalists who cover organized crime and corruption. The motives for this latest attack are unclear, but most likely attributed to stories the newspaper published or organized crime bands trying to get attention, El Universal reported.
The Inter American Press Association condemned the attack and asked the Mexican government to adopt security measures to protect journalists.
In the past three-and-a-half decades, the newspaper has suffered political attacks, but this is the first time it has been attacked by organized crime, La Crónica de Hoy noted.
In the city of Saltillo, the journalist Valdés Espinosa was killed in January 2010, after publishing information about operations against organized crime. The crime remains unpunished.
This grenade attack is part of a wave of violence in Mexico, where 68 journalists have ben killed and 13 disappeared since 2000.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
