In the first month of 2022, Latin America took the lead as the deadliest region for the press, with seven journalists killed: four in Mexico, two in Haiti and one in Honduras.
Three years after personally asking the President of Mexico for protection, journalist Lourdes Maldonado was shot dead in Tijuana. She is joined by two other colleagues who died violently in the country in less than a month, which colleagues, press freedom organizations, and citizens condemned.
The number of journalists murdered decreased in 2021 compared to 2020 worldwide. However, Mexico remains the most lethal country for journalists in the region, with 3 confirmed cases and 6 unconfirmed cases of journalists killed for their profession, according to the annual census of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists published the Global Impunity Index that lists the top 12 countries where perpetrators of crimes against journalists go free. Mexico and Brazil are the Latin American countries that made the ranking.
In Paraguay, 19 journalists have been murdered in the last 30 years, but few cases have been solved. The Bureau for the Safety of Journalists in Paraguay calls for effective measures to protect and prevent crimes against journalists.
In a move celebrated by journalists and press freedom advocates, Mexican officials announced the arrest of a former mayor in the 2017 murder of journalist Miroslava Breach.
Sixty journalists from 25 media outlets in 18 countries got involved in The Cartel Project, which investigated the vested interests behind the murders of journalists who covered violence and organized crime in Mexico.
One of the main missions of site Reporteros de Investigación of Honduras is to investigate the murders of its colleagues, as well as obstacles to press freedom in the country.
Proyecto Vestigios launched on December 6. This photojournalistic project was created by Félix Márquez of Veracruz, Mexico, and tells the story of seven journalists murdered in his state between 2011 and 2015.
Mexico has witnessed an increase in violence against media in just 10 days. Three journalists were killed in different states, one more is missing and in videos spread on the internet, it’s possible to hear shots ring out during coverage of a protest against femicides.
After almost three years after the trial started for Miroslava Breach’s murder, Juan Carlos Moreno Ochoa was declared guilty on March 18 and sentence on August 2020.
The journalist and humorist Jaime Garzón Forero was murdered in the early hours of Aug. 13, 1999, in an alliance between agents of the State and groups outside the law. The country continues to demand for justice.