Why a pattern of murdered journalists in Mexico should worry us in Arizona

Freedom of expression in Mexico is too often silenced with bullets.

Eight journalists have been slain so far this year, making Mexico once again one of the most dangerous countries in the Western Hemisphere for journalists and media workers. At least 148 have been murdered since 2000.

This level of violence against journalists is on par with war zones like Syria and Afghanistan, according to various groups.

Why is this happening? Why is the Mexican government tolerating this brutality and letting most murders of journalists – not to mention the hundreds of thousands of drug-related killings – go unpunished?

Why violence in Mexico matters

Mexico is just next door, our neighbor to the south. What happens there should concern us all, especially the killing of journalists because it reflects a steep decline of democratic values.

The White House and European lawmakers are finally beginning to raise the alarm. The European Union seems to understand how serious of a threat those killings are to democracy in Mexico and how that has repercussions around the world.

More: I survived when hitmen shot up my newsroom. Many journalists do not

The stakes are even higher for the United States because the flow of goods and services between the 2,000-mile-shared-border isn’t limited to the $677 billion worth of trade between the two countries.

To grasp the undercurrents raging in Mexico, we have to go beyond the sensational headlines about throngs of border crossers and Trump’s border wall.

Cartel turf battles are part of daily life

Mexico is a country of nearly 130 million people, rich in oil and ancient cultures. It is famous for stunning beaches and tequila sipped around the world. It has a growing middle class that can afford anything from cars to smartphones to flat-screen TVs.

But 56 million people still lived in poverty in 2020, Reuters reports.

Its people live in parallel worlds, one in which thugs leave bodies hanging on bridges, dumped on roadsides, tossed in clandestine mass graves or riddled with bullets in front of their homes.

They live and work amid a never-ending turf battle among cartels in the lucrative drug and human trafficking business, both of which have direct ties to the United States.

That much has been well documented and gotten Americans’ attention – at least from local and national politicians keen on using Mexico’s violence to score political points at the ballot box.

Less known – or simply ignored – are the internal intricacies of the web of violence, and the business and government corruption that makes it hard to set apart the good guys from the thugs.

Journalists who cover this crime are often targeted

That’s the kind of world Mexican journalists operate in when they set out to gather local news each day.

These brave men and women are always looking over their shoulder, knowing perfectly well that bullets to silence them could come at any moment – from anywhere.

Some murdered journalists, like Lourdes Maldonado López, saw it coming. She told Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2019 that she feared for her life.

On Jan. 23, she was killed outside of her home in Tijuana, just across from San Diego.

She covered corruption and politics for several media outlets. Maldonado López had been embroiled in a labor dispute with one of her former employers, Jaime Bonilla, who also happened to be the governor of that state from 2019 to 2021.

Her killing struck a core because she had appealed to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for help in the dispute. She asked for security protection, telling the president during one of his morning media briefings that she feared for her life.

More: Who are the journalists killed in Mexico in 2022?

She enrolled in the government protection program set up in 2012 and was provided security and a panic button, which she activated to no avail.

She was found dead inside her car with a single gunshot to the face. Authorities made some arrests but her killing remains a mystery, just as it is for the other seven slain this year.

The murdered journalists were covering crime, corruption or politics at the local level in mostly conflict-ridden states of Baja California, Michoacán, Veracruz, Zacatecas and Sonora.

AMLO's attacks on the press haven't helped

Targeting journalists isn’t anything new. At least 148 have been killed since 2000, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Other watchdog groups like Article 19 put that number at 153. The Mexican government disputes the tally, saying most were freelancers and that motives haven’t been determined.

The government isn’t exactly efficient at investigating and solving those murders, and that’s part of the problem.

Plus, the current president, elected in 2018 for a six-year term, has launched brutal verbal attacks against journalists critical of his administration. He calls them the “scum of the earth,” “mercenaries” and “political enemies.”

That dangerous rhetoric, coupled with López Obrador’s “hugs, not bullets” strategy to fight the cartels, has emboldened deadly attacks on press workers.

The attacks must stop.

And the president must take real action to protect media workers. He has so far shrugged off condemnation from world leaders, including those from the United States and the European Union.

On March 10, EU leaders passed a resolution condemning the killings of Mexican journalists and asked López Obrador to tone down the attacks.

Their resolution expressed deep concerns with the rampant killing of journalists and overall human rights violations, including attacks against “environmental defenders and indigenous people and communities.”

EU spoke up. The US has been too soft

They called on AMLO, as the Mexican president is known, to strengthen state institutions and consolidate the rule of law.

“President López Obrador has frequently used populist rhetoric in daily press briefings to denigrate and intimidate independent journalists, media owners and activists,” the EU resolution read. “The Mexican Government has created a state-owned platform to exhibit, stigmatise and attack the critical press.”

The European Union called for him to crack down on “widespread corruption” and “deficient judicial systems, which leads to such high rates of impunity.”

It’s clear that AMLO, who has reacted angrily to that criticism, won’t do any of that without sustained international pressure.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was too soft on AMLO last month.

“I join those calling for greater accountability and protections for Mexican journalists,” Blinken said on Twitter. “My heart goes out to the loved ones of those who gave their lives for the truth.”

Don't turn a blind eye to Mexico

That's not enough. The White House must be direct with AMLO, telling him to stop attacking journalists and better equip Mexico’s media protection programs.

Americans – who, by the way, consume most of Mexico’s drugs – conveniently turn a blind eye to the brutal violence south of the border. Killing journalists won’t kill that truth.

But murdering journalists is slowly killing democracy.

Elvia Díaz is an editorial columnist for The Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why murdered journalists in Mexico should worry Americans