The shocking murder of a investigative journalist in the northern city of Chihuahua has again focused attention on the precarious nature of the profession in Mexico.
Miroslava Breach Velducea, the correspondent for La Jornada in Chihuahua, was shot eight times in her car as she waited for her son to emerge from her house to take him to school. The reporter died in an ambulance on the way to hospital.
This was the third slaying of a Mexican journalist in the past month and the 105th during the last three presidential administrations. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists and has the highest level of unsolved crimes committed against the press.
Journalists last week held protests in several cities, including Guadalajara, not only to demand justice for Breach Velducea but draw attention to the risks they face in their jobs and the lack of interest on the part of authorities to prosecute such crimes.
“We are not asking for privileged treatment,” a journalist read out loud during a protest held beside Guadalajara’s Parque Revolution last Saturday. “We just want constitutional guarantees to be able to continue our work and exercise freedom of expression without our physical, psychological and emotional identity being attacked by revengist violence because our stories make people uncomfortable of truths they don’t want to hear.”
The journalists criticized efforts by the federal government to tackle crimes against journalists, describing the recently enacted Mecanismo de protección para personas defensoras de derechos humanos y periodistas (Protection mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists) as a “white elephant.”
The numbers are staggering: Of around 900 reports of aggression against journalists reported in the past six years, 99.5 percent either never went to trial or the accused walked free.
A respected journalist for two decades, Breach Velducea was known for her dogged investigations into links between corrupt government officials and criminal gangs in northern Mexico.
A note left at the scene by the assassin suggested the attack was carried out by a criminal group known as El 80 that has ties to the Juarez drug cartel. The missive referred to Breach Velducea as “a loudmouth.”
According to Chihuahua Attorney General César Augusto Peniche Espejel, Breach Velducea had never asked for protection or filed an accusation after receiving threats.
Her family, however, confirm that she had been threatened but preferred to keep the matter private. Journalists who file official denuncias often complain they treated like criminals by authorities.
On February 20, Breach Velducea had written a story in La Jornada titled “Narcos Infiltrate Municipal Governments in Chihuahua.” In the piece she outlined – providing evidence – of how public security chiefs in ten municipalities in the state had links to drug cartels.
Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral vowed to track down the culprits of Breach Velducea’s murder and on Tuesday told reporters that investigators had some solid leads in the case, without providing details.
The next day at a press conference, Corral admitted that his government would struggle to tackle the growing insecurity in the state without greater federal assistance. In the five months from October 2016 to February 2017, Chihuahua has seen 768 homicides, 315 rapes and 1,394 people injured in violent incidents.
Tough editorials in Chihuahua newspapers suggest that residents in the state are becoming increasingly angered at the escalating violence. Just over a week ago, eight people died in a four-hour shootout between El 80 and rival criminal gangs in the small town of Rubio. Four municipal police officers were seriously injured in the incident.
Irina Bolívar, director general of the United Nations Education Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), condemned the murder of Breach Velducea and demanded that authorities quickly identify and punish those responsible.