A new journalist was assassinated in Mexico on Saturday, July 15, this time in the city of Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero. The same day he was killed in Aguascalientes, the capital of the state of the same name, a defender of human rights.
The Mexico Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned these crimes and asked the country’s law enforcement institutions to undertake a diligent and effective investigation of both cases.
These investigations, pointed out the UN, must have as priority line of research related to interests that they could have been affected by the work of journalism and defense of human rights carried out by the two victims.
previous attacks
Nelson Matus Peña was a journalist with several years of experience who collaborated with various local media. Together with a colleague he founded a media outlet, but his partner left town forced by violence. Currently, Matus Peña directed the news portal “Lo Real de Guerrero”.
The information received by the UN Office indicates that the journalist was attacked by armed individuals on Saturday afternoonwhile he was in his vehicle in the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood of Acapulco.
Matus Peña had suffered other previous assaults on his security, including an assassination attempt which he reported to the appropriate authorities. However, the journalist did not have a protection scheme.
His murder is the third documented this year by the Human Rights Office for possible links to his work.
Defender of LGBTI+ rights
Ulises Nava Juárez, for his part, was a defender of the rights of LGBTI+ people and head of the Department of Sexual Diversity at the Autonomous University of Guerrero, his home state.
The activist was killed on the afternoon of July 15 as he left the National Congress of Strategic Litigation for the Defense of Rainbow Quotas, organized at the Descubre museum in the city of Aguascalientes, where a unidentified man shot him six times from a motorcycle. The murderer was with another person.
With that of Nava Juárez, There are at least seven murders registered in 2023 by the UN Office possibly related to the work of activists of fundamental guarantees. Two of these victims were dedicated to defending the rights of LGBTI+ people.
The ONU urged the Mexican State to take effective preventive measures and structural to eradicate violence against those who exercise the right to defend basic guarantees and freedom of expression through journalism.
