Alejandro Martínez had received so many threats that the Mexican government assigned him protection. On Sunday, he was killed, and the security agents accompanying him were injured. Martínez was no stranger to covering the type of news that led him to crime scenes and fatal accidents in Celaya, a city in central Mexico that has become a hub of violence as homicide cases accumulate.
His work was so dangerous that he had a security team assigned by the government, which usually transported him to the locations where he reported. However, even the agents dedicated to protecting him couldn’t prevent unknown attackers from killing 57-year-old Martínez on Sunday.
Shortly after finishing a live Facebook broadcast covering a traffic accident near the city, Martínez was in a police vehicle heading back to Celaya when he was shot by attackers in another vehicle. The two traffic officers traveling in the car were also injured.
“Alright, friends, I’m signing off,” he had said minutes earlier to those following what would be his last live broadcast. “I truly appreciate your attention and your patience with my ramblings.”
Celaya’s Secretariat of Public Security stated in a release that the two police officers immediately took Martínez to a hospital, but he died shortly afterward. At least three bullet holes were visible in the vehicle, according to local media.
A team of forensic experts and prosecutors has been assigned to investigate the murder and find those responsible, according to the Guanajuato State Attorney General’s Office, where Celaya is located. It remains unclear whether Martínez was the target of the attack or if the armed men were after the police officers accompanying him.
Martínez, whom some locals called the “voice of Celaya” due to his coverage of community news and crime, survived an assassination attempt in 2022. Afterward, he requested protection from both the federal and state governments. He no longer worked without his security team and stopped covering shootings.
Celaya used to be a prosperous and peaceful center in the state of Guanajuato, a city connected to the United States by national highways and important railways. Its vibrant automotive industry attracted families to live in the city with iconic colonial architecture.
However, in recent years, the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel has engaged in a dangerous territorial conflict with a local criminal group, the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel. The rivalry between the two groups for control of the state has led to an increase in disappearances and homicides, making many of its residents—from aspiring politicians to extortion-suffering vendors and families searching for loved ones—targets of attacks.
At least 98 police officers have been killed in Guanajuato since the beginning of 2023, with 41 of them in Celaya, according to data collected by the Mexican organization Causa en Común.
Journalists have also fallen victim to this wave of violence. The body of Víctor Manuel Jiménez Campos, another Celaya journalist who disappeared in 2020 after covering a baseball game, was found in June in a water well alongside other remains.
“We continue to live in that spiral of violence that has not stopped, which has trapped us for many years,” said Balbina Flores, Mexico’s representative to the international organization Reporters Without Borders. “A major question it raises is who protects us. Who protects journalists?”
Mexico is the most dangerous country in the Americas for journalists and one of the most perilous worldwide, surpassed only by active war zones. According to Article 19, a press freedom defense organization, 166 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000 in connection with their work.
Of these, 47 have been killed during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration, during which he initially promised that no more journalists would be killed in Mexico.
However, the killings have not ceased. “It’s easy to promise something that won’t be fulfilled,” said Flores. Instead, López Obrador has focused primarily on downplaying these murders and has attacked the press for its critical reports, accusing his opponents of using threats against journalists in Mexico to harm his government.
“It seems that journalist murders—because that’s the idea they’ve planted—have only occurred during this administration,” López Obrador stated in a press conference in March.
Martínez was not the first reporter murdered after receiving government protection, according to Flores, who asserted that her organization has documented at least 10 such cases, five of them during López Obrador’s administration.
Sunday’s assassination once again sends a “devastating message” to other journalists across the country, she added.
As of November last year, over 650 journalists received protection from the Mexican government, according to Amnesty International, although the number of rejected requests has increased over the years.
“There is no comprehensive policy that considers reviewing the protection and prevention measures provided to journalists in extremely high-risk areas, such as Guanajuato,” said Flores.
President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who will take office in October, signed a letter during her campaign promising to review journalist protection policies in Mexico, prioritize the search for missing reporters, and continuously monitor security threats to prevent violence against the press.
In a 2021 interview, a journalist asked Martínez if he had become accustomed to the violence in Celaya. “No,” he replied. “It pains me to see Celaya as it is. It pains me to witness everything that happens, to see people dead.”
He paused for a moment to catch his breath and wipe away tears. “All of this hurts,” he said.
By Emiliano Rodríguez Mega
Source: The New York Times
