Eighth Journalist Killed This Year in Mexico
Deceased Mexican journalist Armando Linares. Photo: Facebook
By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICOI STAFF
On Tuesday, March 15, Mexican reporter Armando Linares, director of the Monitor Michoacán news outlet, became the eighth journalist to be murdered so far this year in Mexico in a torrent of killings that has earned the government international condemnation.
Linares was shot dead in the city of Zitacuaro, Michoacan, outside his home, that state attorney general’s office said Tuesday.
Linares’ killing occurred just six weeks after the slaying of his colleague, Roberto Toledo, from the same news outlet, an incident that, ironically, Linares reported on.
No motive was given by authorities as to the reason for Linares’ death, but the central Mexican state of Michoacán has been Ground Zero for ongoing drug cartel turf wars for the last couple years.
On Wednesday, March 16, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who has reacted angrily to worldwide criticism of the spiraling incidence of journalist killings in Mexico (Mexico has had more journalists killed this year than Ukraine), condemned Linares’ murder during his daily morning press conference and said that an investigation of the case was underway.
So far this year, AMLO has been reprimanded by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the European Parliament and United Nations High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet for not providing adequate protection for journalists.
The president’s blanket response to this growing global condemnation has been to accuse the outsiders of “meddling” and “coup-mongering,” and to call them “uninformed.”
With the death of Linares, Mexico has so far this year registered an average of almost one dead journalist a week.
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