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( Spanish) — Journalist Marco Aurelio Ramírez was shot to death when he was getting into his car outside his home in the municipality of Tehuacán, Puebla, the state prosecutor’s office reported on his Twitter account on Tuesday.
According to the organization that defends press freedom Reporters Without Borders, Ramírez is the third journalist killed in 2023, while Article 19 registers with him five cases of communicators murdered in Mexico in the last year.
The victim was 69 years old and had worked for decades in various local media, was a lawyer and a former state official, Article 19 and Reporters Without Borders told .
“He had a short period in which he dedicated himself to public service in the municipality of Tehuacán. He had already returned to work as a private attorney, and he also returned to work, not necessarily with the same intensity as before, but he was always a colleague who lived on the edge of the knife, uncovering cases such as the priest accused of pedophilia Nicolás Aguilar,” Leopoldo Maldonado, regional director of Article 19 for Mexico and Central America, told on Wednesday.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) pointed out that Ramírez, being a Tehuacán official, would have contributed to the capture of presumed criminals. It is unknown if his murder is linked to these cases.
During his morning conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said this Wednesday that the murder of Ramírez is already being investigated, and that this Tuesday he had held communication with the governor of Puebla, Carlos Humberto Reyes, although at that time the crime had not yet happened. .
Mexico is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world to practice journalism, according to organizations such as Reporters Without Borders, Article 19 and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Since the year 2000, more than 150 journalists have been murdered in Mexico, according to Article 19. Along with 2017, 2022 is considered the deadliest year for journalism, behind Ukraine, according to these organizations in defense of press freedom , with more than 15 journalists killed, according to a tally based on reporting by RSF and Article 19.
