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Journalists and press groups called for justice on Monday after gunmen murdered a journalist in Guerrero, along with a police officer assigned to protect him after a 2016 attack.
Pablo Morrugares was the fifth journalist to be killed in Mexico this year, in attacks that are increasingly killing police guards assigned to the victims. Over 140 journalists have been killed over the past 20 years.
The prosecutors’ office in Guerrero said Morrugares and a state police officer were at a restaurant when they were killed in a hail of bullets on Sunday. Authorities found 55 shell casings from assault rifles at the scene in the city of Iguala. The killers allegedly opened fire from a passing vehicle.
Morrugares was director of the P.M Noticias Guerrero web site, which frequently reports on the gang violence that plagues the region. Local media reported that threats against Morrugares had been displayed in the past on banners hung by roadsides, a tactic frequently used by drug cartels in Mexico.
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On Monday, the Inter American Press Association called on authorities to investigate the crime. It said Morrugares and his wife had survived a previous attack in 2016 when attackers opened fire on their car. The group called on Mexican authorities to provide better funding and protection for journalists registered in a government protection program.
While the Mexican government has sometimes assigned police bodyguards for threatened journalists, killers have increasingly been murdering both the journalists and their guards.
In June, Journalist José Castillo was 55 years old and led media outlet Prioridad Máxima.
His body was left on the sidewalk outside his home at the El Campanario, Cajeme.
According to the Citizen Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, Cajeme is the fifth most dangerous city in the world.
On June 2, Ariel Amparán Figueroa, head of the media outlet El Sisañozo, reported an attack against him for informing about an attack against a Cajeme journalist.
On May 27, journalist Marco Antonio Duarte Vargas suffered an assassination attempt when a Molotov cocktail was thrown against his vehicle.
On May 16, journalist Jorge Armenta Ávalos was murdered when he left a restaurant; his bodyguard died too.
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A dangerous country for journalists
In August 2019, EL UNIVERSAL reported that more journalists were being murdered in Mexico than in Afghanistan.
Throughout 2019, criminals murdered 25 journalists from different countries. Unfortunately, a third of the victims were killed in Mexico.
It is a disgrace that Mexico, a country that is not officially going through armed conflict, tripled the number of journalists killed in Afghanistan. In contrast, the Asian country registered the death of three journalists amid civil war and while it is under the yoke of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the Taliban. Pakistan and Somalia are in third place after registering 2 dead journalists.
Mexico became “the deadliest country to be a journalist” and also plunged into the 140th place, among 180, in the World Press Freedom Index.
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