Mexico: double assassination of indigenous leaders

CounterVortex

The Emiliano Zapata Popular and Indigenous Council of Guerrero (CIPOG-EZ) is calling upon the United Nations to investigate following the assassination of two leaders of the organization. The bodies of José Lucio Bartolo Faustino and Modesto Verales Sebastián were found May 5 in the town of Chilapa de Alvarez, where they had days earlier been abducted on a road by unknown gunmen. Both were leaders of the Nahua indigenous community in Chilapa municipality, had served as representatives to the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), and had promoted the 2017 presidential candidacy of María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, known as “Marichuy,” a Nahua woman who won the support of both the CNI and Mexico’s Zapatista rebels. Both were abducted when they were returning to their communities in outlying villages of Chilapa municipality from a meeting of indigenous leaders in the Guerrero state capital, Chilpancingo. (Enlace Zapatisa, Somos el Medio, Prensa Latina)

The neighboring state of Oaxaca had days earlier seen the latest in the ongoing wave of killings of journalists in Mexico. Telésforo Santiago Enríquez, a retired teacher and founder of community radio station El Cafetal in the politically divided village of San Agustín Loxicha, was found shot to death in a car in Juchitán. He was also politically active and a member of local Section 22 of the National Coordinator for Education Workers (CNTE). Perversely, he was killed on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, May 3. He was the seventh media worker to be killed during President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador‘s administration, by the government’s own count. (Committee to Protect Journalists, TRT World)

Image: Somos el Medio

  1. Two reporters killed in one day in Mexico

    Fredy López Arévalo, a veteran reporter in the southern state of Chiapas, was shot in the head inside his home in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas on Oct. 31. López had covered the Zapatista uprising for news organizations such as Reuters, the Los Angeles Times and Notimex.

    On the same day, Acapulco journalist Alfredo Cardoso was pulled from his home by masked gunmen who also threatened his family. He was found the next day having been shot five times, and died from his injuries in a local hospital. (The Guardian)

  2. Two reporters killed in one week in Mexico

    A journalist was been killed in Tijuana Jan. 34, the second in the city in a week. Mexico President Andrés Manuel Obrador called Monday for a full investigation into the murder of Lourdes Maldonado López, a Tijuana journalist who had once come to him for help.

    Maldonado was found shot to death inside a car, according to a statement from the Baja California state prosecutor’s office. 

    In 2019, Maldonado came to López Obrador’s daily morning press conference and asked for his help “because I fear for my life.”

    Maldonado had collaborated with many outlets, but recently was doing a radio show, “Brebaje,” focused on local news and aired on station Sintoniza sin Fronteras.

    Another Tijuana reporter, photo-journalist Margarito Martínez, was gunned down outside his home on Jan. 17. He was well known for covering the crime scene in the violence-plagued city. He worked for the local news outlet Cadena Noticias, as well as for other national and international media outlets. (AP, BBC News)

  3. Another journalist slain in Mexico

    Local website Monitor Michoacán said three assailants fatally shot journalist Roberto Toledo in the city of Zitacuaro. Prosecutors in the western state of Michoacán say they were investigating the report. 

    Toledo is the fourth journalist slain in Mexico this year. In addition to the two cases in Tijuana (reported above), reporter José Luis Gamboa of Inforegio was stabbed to death in Veracruz on Jan. 10. (CBS, CPJ)