Relatives of Juan Carlos Muñiz, a Mexican crime journalist, attend his funeral in Fresnillo, Zacatecas State, Mexico on March 5, 2022, the day after he was killed. HEDI MONTERO / AFP
Journalist Armando Linares, director of the news website Monitor Michoacan, was killed on Tuesday, March 15, in Mexico, a month and a half after the murder of Roberto Toledo, an employee of the same media outlet. The killing increased the number of journalists killed in the country since the beginning of the year to eight, the Michoacán State Attorney said.
Mr. Linares, whose body was riddled with bullet holes, died in the afternoon at his home, explained the state prosecutor for Michoacán, a state marked by years of drug cartel-related violence.
The director of Monitor Michoacan denounced threats against him and his team for exposing corruption after the January 31 murder of his employee. “We are not armed, we have no weapons. Our only defense is our pen, pencil,” he said in a video released after the death of Roberto Toledo.
Armando Linares is the eighth journalist to be killed since the start of the year in Mexico, one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the press, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). “The nightmare continues for the press in Mexico. RSF is documenting the facts and is demanding an exemplary investigation from the Michoacán prosecutor’s office,” RSF tweeted.
33,315 homicides in 2021
Michoacán, the state in western Mexico where Armando Linares was killed, is suffering from violence. The powerful Cartel de Jalisco-Nouvelle Génération (CJNG) operates there and other organizations such as Los Viagras compete for this strategic drug trafficking territory on the Pacific coast.
In 2021, 2,732 homicides were reported in Michoacán, representing just over 8% of the 33,315 intentional homicides committed in all of Mexico.
Jorge Luis Camero, one of the last journalists killed on February 24, has just retired in Empalma, Sonora (North). About 150 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, according to RSF.