Three journalists kidnapped in the Mexican state of Guerrero (south) have been released, prosecutors said in this state where organized crime is rife.
The journalists – Silvia Nayssa Arce, Alberto Sánchez and Marco Antonio Toledo – were released thanks to the “intensification of search operations and the efforts of the authorities” at the local and federal levels, the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Saturday.
The release of the journalists “was confirmed after obtaining life evidence (from the prosecution) and hearing the victims,” the press release continued.
The prosecutor’s office also confirmed the release of Guadalupe Denova, the wife of one of the released journalists, Marco Antonio Toledo. However, the couple’s son, Alberto Toledo Denova, who was kidnapped with his parents, has not been found and police are “continuing search operations,” the press release said.
Marco Antonio Toledo, director of the local weekly newspaper El Espectador and correspondent for several media outlets, was kidnapped in Taxco on November 19. The other two journalists, Arce and Sánchez, from the online media RedSiete, were kidnapped in the same city on November 22nd.
According to the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Mexico is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
On November 16, photojournalist Ismael Villagómez Tapia, an employee of the local newspaper El Heraldo de Juárez, was shot dead in Ciudad Juárez, northern Mexico, on the border with the United States. Three people were arrested for this murder.
According to RSF, at least five more journalists have been killed in Mexico since the beginning of the year.
Since 2000, more than 150 journalists have been murdered in the country and 28 are missing. According to the Article 19 Association, 2022 was the deadliest year, with at least 13 murders of journalists documented by the government.