The streets of downtown Uruapan were mostly vacant as Mexican journalist Mauricio Cruz Solís hosted a live broadcast with the city’s mayor about assistance for business owners following a fire at a local market. Shortly after finishing the interview, at about 10 p.m. on Oct. 29, the 25-year-old journalist was shot to death.
Solís is one of at least eight journalists killed in Latin America in 2024, according to the annual round-up from Reporters Without Borders (RSF, for its initials in French).
In a year when an incredibly high number of journalists lost their lives in conflict zones – Gaza in particular – Latin American countries still continue to land on lists of the most lethal places for the press.
Mexico is on RSF’s list of the top three most dangerous countries and territories for journalists this year, with at least five journalists killed there. In Colombia, RSF reports the killings of at least two journalists, which ranks the country sixth on the organization’s list. And in Honduras, at least one journalist was killed for his work. On Jan. 28, Luis Alonso Teruel, host of a political program on Pecaligüe TV, was intercepted while traveling on a highway with his 11-year-old son, taken out of the vehicle and shot.
The fatal attacks on the press this year were brazen — just about the same number as last year. This followed a huge decrease from 2022, when RSF reported 27 killings of journalists from the region.
Artur Romeu, director of RSF’s Latin America Office, said violence is still a tool for censorship in Latin America and the number of journalists killed is just one indicator of safety conditions for working as a journalist in the region.
“Violence against journalists is still present in different parts of Latin America and the murders themselves are just the tip of the iceberg of a much higher and much bigger trend of violence against journalists in the region,” Romeu told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR).
An apparent drop in killings was also noted by UNESCO, which recorded at least 12 killings of journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean this year, compared to 18 in 2023 and 43 in 2022.
Press freedom groups have different methodologies for linking the murder of a journalist to the exercise of their profession. For this reason, the numbers tend to vary between organizations.
Guilherme Canela, head of the Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists section at UNESCO, said he is hopeful the numbers signal a reduction in murders of journalists, but more research is needed.
“It’s inherently good news, but we need to have more insight to understand why this might become a positive trend and what are the root causes for this drop in the killings,” Canela told LJR.
He said some hypotheses could explain the decrease in murders, namely a reduction in the global rate of impunity in crimes against journalists. A decade ago, the rate was 95%, but now that rate is at 85%.
“The number, 85%, is still outrageous and absurd,” Canela added.
Another is the presence of the United Nations Action Plan on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, which was approved in 2012. This has included the training of more than 15,000 judicial personnel.
And a third hypothesis is the increasing number of national mechanisms for journalist safety.
Still, Canela said there might be hypotheses that point to negative root causes of the apparent drop in murders: a shift to other types of crimes against journalists and self-censorship.
He suspects the reduction of murders cannot be explained by just one of these hypotheses alone, but that all contribute.
Disappearances and detentions
Dangers for the press do not end with killings.
Globally, six media professionals have disappeared in 2024, including journalist and activist Fabiola Tercero Castro from Nicaragua, according to RSF’s records. As noted by the press freedom organization, there are suspicions that Tercero Castro is in a state prison, but officials haven’t confirmed this.
Mexico also leads RSF’s records of journalists who disappeared in the last decade with at least five press professionals still missing.
Additionally, RSF recorded one journalist held hostage in Mexico: Alán García Aguilar, a journalist for digital news site Escenario Calentano who was abducted at the end of December 2022 and has still not been released.
Considering press professionals who have landed in jail or prison for their work, Venezuela leads the region with eight cases of journalists detained this year, according to RSF. Detentions occurred when reporting on a presidential election fraught with allegations of fraud. Charges included inciting hatred, terrorism and obstructing public roads.
“In just a couple of weeks, Venezuela became the biggest prison for journalists in the region,” Romeu said.
While a series of structural conditions were present that made working as a journalist in Venezuela difficult over the past decade, Romeu said there has been an escalation with these detentions.
“The government has scaled up its capacity to censor journalism and to violate press freedom in the country even more,” he said. “Journalists now are more afraid of doing journalism.”
Among the noted cases of press professionals released from detention in the region this year, RSF points to that of Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora, who is still under house arrest with the threat of being sent back to prison. He spent 813 days in prison and faces legal proceedings that have been criticized by local and international organizations.
Cuban journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca, who was initially detained in June 2021 and convicted a year later for “continued enemy propaganda,” was released in June 2024 provided he leave the country. He now lives in the U.S.
And Nicaraguan journalist Victor Ticay was released on Sept. 5, 2024 after being sentenced to eight years in prison and serving 517 days there. Upon release, he was deported from the country along with 134 other political prisoners.
Journalists killed in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024
Romeu emphasized a pattern that marks killings of journalists in Latin America.
He said journalists are typically targeted by a mastermind who directs hitmen to execute a local journalist who has his own hyperlocal media outlet where he reports on local corruption and is killed on his way home. The masterminds themselves are often difficult to identify.
“When we look at each case individually, it’s confirmation of this pattern which is pretty specific to Latin America,” Romeu said.
Below, LJR presents the names of journalists murdered in 2024 that were reported by UNESCO, RSF, CPJ, the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the IACHR and/or by local organizations. It is not clear in every case if the murder is linked to their work as a journalist.
Jan. 24: Mardonio Mejía (Colombia)
Jan. 28: Luis Alonso Teruel (Honduras)
April 14: Jaime Vásquez (Colombia)
April 26: Roberto Carlos Figueroa (Mexico)
June 10: Víctor Manuel Jiménez Campos (Mexico)
June 27: Jorge Méndez Pardo (Colombia)
June 28: Víctor Alfonso Culebro Morales (Mexico)
Aug. 4: Alejandro Alfredo Martínez Noguez (Mexico)
Aug. 31: Enrique Hernández Avilés (Mexico)
Oct. 29: Mauricio Cruz Solís (Mexico)
Oct. 30: Patrícia Ramírez González (Mexico)
Nov. 21: Steven Andrés Fajardo (Colombia)
Nov. 23: Leonardo Rivas (Ecuador)
Dec. 3: Edgar Garay (Colombia)
Dec. 3: Adriano Bachega Olvera (Mexico)
