Mexican police arrested journalist Sanjuana Martínez in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León, according to her colleague, Lydia Cacho, who reported the arrest via Twitter the morning of Thursday, July 5.
Sanjuana Martínez, a well known investigative journalist in Mexico, was arrested without the police giving an explanation of the reason for her arrest, nor did they present a warrant, according to the news site Conexion Total. The journalist, who has written for the newspapers La Jornada and Proceso, has reported on human rights violations that happen in the current war against organized crime.
Apparently, the journalist was arrested as a consequence of a divorce lawsuit with the Spanish judge, Carlos Castresana, who sued for custody of their children, according to the newspaper El Economista. The website Sin Embargo said that this type of arrest, which was done with firearms, is not common in divorce cases, which are civil and not criminal lawsuits.
The journalist's lawyer went to the prosecutor's office, but said that she has not been able to talk or see the journalist up to this moment, according to Sin Embargo.
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.
