Mothers of the disappeared march in Mexico
On May 10, Mexico's Day of the Mother, thousands of mothers and other family members of the disappeared held a March for National Dignity in the capital, calling for action on their missing loved ones. The march, which filled the main avenues of Mexico City, was organized by a coalition made up of 60 regional collectives of survivors of the disappeared from around the country. In the days before the march, a group camped out outside the National Palace, demanding a dialogue on the matter with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Last month, the disappearance of Debanhi Escobar, an 18-year-old law student, sparked fresh outrage amid a spate of disappearances of women in Monterrey, capital of northern Nuevo León state. Her body was found two weeks later submerged in a cistern on the grounds of a motel near where she was last seen alive, according to authorities. Hundreds of women blocked a highway in downtown Monterrey in the days following, demanding an end to gender violence. Twenty-six women and girls have disappeared in Nuevo León this year, and five more have been found dead after being reported missing.
The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances last month urged Mexico to address "the alarming trend of rising enforced disappearances," saying the problem is facilitated by "almost absolute impunity." (Al Jazeera, El Financiero, El Pais)
Attacks on journalists continue
Just as Mexican media workers prepared to protest the killing of a journalist last week, word came May 9 that two more were shot to death in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz. The killings of Yessenia Mollinedo Falconi and Sheila Johana García Olivera, both of the online news site El Veraz in Cosoleacaque, brought to 11 the number of journalist slayings in the country this year. Veracruz state authorities say they are investigating.
Their killings followed the ninth slaying of journalist this year, in the northern state of Sinaloa. Prosecutors there said May 5 that the body of Luis Enrique Ramírez Ramos was found on a dirt road near a junkyard in the state capital, Culiacán. Ramírez Ramos, of local news site Fuentes Fidedignas, had been abducted near his home hours earlier. (AP)
See our last report on the human rights crisis in Mexico.
Mexico's disappeared top 100,000
Mexico's National Registry of Disappeared Persons has now surpassed 100,000 names. The figure has jumped by more than 30,000 since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador too office in 2018. (El Financiero)
Political assassinations continue in Mexico
Activist attorney and women's rights advocate Cecilia Monzón was assassinated May 21 by two men on a motorbike as she was driving in San Pedro Cholula, Puebla state. She had been particularly outspoken in support of abortion rights. (TeleSur, ExpansionPolitica)
On March 11, Jose Trinidad Baldenegro, a Tarahumara campaigner against illegal logging, was gunned down outside his home in Coloradas de la Virgen, Chihuahua. His brother, Isidro Baldenegro, whose campaign against illegal logging won him a Goldman Prize for environmental activism in 2005, was murdered in 2017. A year later, Julián Carrillo, another Tarahumara leader, was slain. Four of Carrillo's relatives had been killed. (AP, Indigenous Peoples Rights International)
Mexico: another journalist slain, in Guanajuato
A Mexican journalist was killed in the central state of Guanajuato while working at his family's bar, human rights organization Article 19 reports, the latest fatality in a deadly year for the country's media. Ernesto Mendez, who led local outlet Tu Voz, had previously received threats, Article 19 said. "With Ernesto, that adds up to 13 murders of journalists in 2022, at least nine of those tied to their work," the organization said. (Reuters)
Mexico: another journalist slain, in Sinaloa
A body found this week in Mazatlán is believed to be that of a missing local radio reporter, Candida Cristal Vazquez, who was reported missing in late July. (Reuters)
Mexico program to protect journalists under fire
A government initiative to protect journalists needs a "major overhaul," according to a joint review by Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Their two-year investigation revealed "an alarming picture of a deeply flawed institution." Mexico is the most dangerous country for the press in the western hemisphere. (TNH)
Mexican journalist Jamie Barrera found alive following abduction
Mexican journalist Jaime Barrera, known for his roles as the host of a news program on local TV channel Televisa Guadalajara and as a commentator on a political opinion program, was released after being abducted earlier this week, his daughter announced March 13. Barrera, 56 years old, was kidnapped on two days earier in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, where he works. Barrera recounted his experience, stating that his captors physically abused and interrogated Barrera about his reporting, particularly regarding drug cartel violence in Jalisco. (Jurist)