Fourth Journalist Killed In Mexico In Less Than A Month

Mexico local website journalist Roberto Toledo was killed on Monday. He became the fourth media correspondent to be murdered in the country in less than a month.

According to Armando Linares, director of the local website Monitor Michoacán, three assailants fatally shot Toledo in the city of Zitacuaro. He mentioned that the website had received threats for reporting on governmental corruption. "For exposing corrupt administrations and corrupt officials and politicians, today that led to the death of one of our colleagues," Linares said. "The Monitor Michoacán team has suffered weeks, months of death threats. We know where all of this comes from."

Toledo worked as a camera operator and video editor for two years, and he was reportedly filming a new video column when the shooters arrived. Western State of Michoacán prosecutors confirmed that they were investigating the report.

Toledo had already been part of the federal government's protection system for journalists and human rights defenders known as "el mecanismo," translated as the mechanism. According to The National Academy of Radio and Television Journalists, Toledo and other members of the Monitor Michoacán staff had denounced aggression and death threats connected to their work.

Due to the continuous killings of news reporters staged a series of protests. Journalists in Mexico responded to the fatal murders, desperately accused Andrés Manuel López Obrador of failing to take justice to protect them and their colleagues. "In López Obrador's discourse, he says, 'the state no longer persecutes journalists' and he's correct," said Javier Garza, a journalist in the city of Torreón. "But he doesn't stop any of the other actors" from attacking members of the press.

The government reported over 50 journalists have been killed in Mexico since December 2018. Local reporters investigating links between politics and organized crime were the most to receive threats. Toledo was the fourth Mexican journalist to be murdered in 2022. Earlier this month, Lourdes Maldonado López was shot dead on Jan. 23, Tijuana photojournalist Margarito Martínez was killed in his home on Jan. 17, while José Luis Gamboa was stabbed at least seven times on Jan. 10 in the port city of Veracruz.