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Last Tuesday, Mexican journalist Gumaro Pérez Aguilando was murdered in Veracruz, central Mexico, during a Christmas celebration at his 6-year-old son’s school, the latest murder in the country’s deadliest year on record for media workers.
Gumaro Pérez Aguilando, 35, was shot at four times and killed in the Acayucan municipality, where at least three journalists have been killed in the state of Veracruz .
Pérez regularly wrote about security and drug trafficking for Golfo Sur and Voz del Sur , among other media organizations.
According to Reporters Without Borders , at least 65 media workers were killed worldwide this year, including 50 professional journalists.
As reported by the organization, Mexico is one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist. Since 2000, at least 111 media workers have been killed in Mexico, with 38 deaths since Enrique Peña Nieto became president in December 2012. The spate of murders has made Mexico one of the world's most dangerous countries in which to be a journalist, along with Syria .
The murder of Gumaro Pérez Aguilando has drawn international condemnation and the outcry continues.
The Inter American Press Association ( IAPA ) expressed outrage at the murder of the Mexican journalist and stressed the urgent need to investigate and apply justice to break the circle of impunity in a statement. On Twitter, IAPA wrote in Spanish: “IAPA condemns journalist murder in Mexico.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ( UN-DH ) condemned the murder of Gumaro Pérez in a statement adding that Jan Jarab UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ( OHCHR ) urged “to stop the impunity that characterizes the killings of journalists in Mexico." According to the UN statement, Pérez had already been assaulted several times in connection with his work during the course of 2012 and 2014 .
On Twitter, UN Mexico News wrote in Spanish: “UN-DH condemns the murder of Gumaro Pérez Aguilando, 12th journalist killed in Mexico this year.”
PEN International
, PEN México, and PEN San Miguel de Allende urged the Mexican authorities to carry out a prompt and thorough investigation into the murder of Gumaro Pérez Aguilando, calling “local and federal authorities to urgently fulfil their promise to guarantee the safety of its journalists by ensuring that its protection programmes are fully operational.”
Read IAPA full statement here.
Read Pen International full statement here.
Read UN-DH full statement in Spanish here.
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