Since Jan. 1, hundreds of Mexicans have taken to the streets of different cities in the country to protest the increase of up to 20 percent in the price of fuel. Some of the protests for the “gasolinazo,” as the demonstrations are known, have become violent, including looting and clashes with police with number of people killed, injured and detained.
Marco Antonio Ramón, a 25-year-old Peruvian photojournalist, could lose his left eye after being hit by a flurry of rubber bullets from the police while covering a protest for newspaper Peru.21 in Lima.
For decades, Colombian journalism has been a direct victim of the violence generated by the country’s armed conflict that started more than 50 years ago. The signing of the new peace agreement with the FARC guerrillas, endorsed by the country’s Congress on Nov. 30, could mean the end of one of the causes of violent censorship for journalists in Colombia.
Although the number of murders of journalists in the world has dropped from record levels, two Latin American countries are among the deadliest for communicators in 2016, according to the year-end report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Reporters Without Borders (RSF for its acronym in French), a nonprofit organization that defends freedoms of expression and information, has been investing in Brazil to increase visibility and presence in the country. In 2015, RSF opened a regional office for Latin America in Rio de Janeiro and launched a version of its site in Portuguese at the end of November 2016.
Radio reporter Jesus Adrián Rodríguez Samaniego, 41, was killed outside his home in Chihuahua, Mexico on the morning of Dec. 10.
For Mexican journalists, covering la nota roja – or the crime beat – goes beyond being exposed to physical dangers. By living and working in high-risk areas, their constant and systematic contact with violence puts their mental health on the line.
Hernán Choquepata Ordoñez, Peruvian journalist from La Ribereña radio station, was broadcasting music for his program “Habla el pueblo” (“The town speaks”) when unidentified men entered the booth and gave him a beating that ended up taking his life on Nov. 20, reported newspaper La República.
The Mexican state of Veracruz has proven to be one of the most dangerous places in the world for the press with 17 journalist homicides in the last six years. This year alone, three journalists have been killed in the state.
Carmen Aristegui, one of Mexico’s most well-known journalists, said her country “is experiencing a profound crisis in terms of human rights, including killings and disappearances of journalists and [other] people.”
November 2, the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, first declared by the United Nations in 2013, coincides with the Day of the Dead, a cultural and religious event widely celebrated in Mexico.
For the second consecutive year, Mexico and Brazil are the only Latin American countries that are part of the Global Impunity Index by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which was published on Oct. 27.