A Mexican journalist who lined drug trafficking has been murdered, officers informed AFP on Monday, the most recent casualty in a rustic notoriously harmful for reporters.
The reporter, Miguel Angel Beltran, had beforehand labored in print media and was now protecting crime-related points on social media, in line with native reviews.
Beltran’s physique was discovered on Saturday alongside a stretch of freeway that connects the northwest state of Durango with Mazatlan, a resort hub within the neighboring state of Sinaloa, native press reported. Native media reported the journalist’s physique was discovered wrapped in a blanket, with a message that learn: “For spreading false accusations in opposition to the folks of Durango.”
His dying was confirmed to AFP by the Durango state prosecutor’s workplace.
Beltran had reported from TikTok accounts, underneath the deal with Capo, and on Fb, on the web page La Gazzetta Durango, AFP confirmed.
In one in every of his final posts, on October 22, Beltran reported on the arrest of a frontrunner of a criminal offense gang referred to as Cabrera Sarabia, which operates in Durango and is a rival of the highly effective Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartels.
Mexico is taken into account one of the crucial harmful nations for journalists, with greater than 150 media staff slain since 1994, in line with Reporters With out Borders (RSF).
Beltran and different murdered journalists labored in areas the place drug cartels have been energetic, they usually revealed their work in native media or on social media, usually in precarious employment circumstances.
Media staff are often focused in Mexico, usually in direct reprisal for his or her work protecting matters like corruption and the nation’s notoriously violent drug traffickers.
A file variety of journalists have been killed worldwide in 2024, the Committee to Shield Journalists stated in a report launched earlier this yr, together with 5 in Mexico.
Mexico had its deadliest yr for journalists in 2022, with 13 killings, in line with CPJ and Articulo 19, a company selling press freedom in Mexico. Since 2000, Articulo 19 has documented 174 murders and 31 disappearances of journalists in Mexico.
All however a handful of media staff’ killings and abductions stay unsolved.
“Impunity is the norm in crimes in opposition to the press,” the Committee to Shield Journalists stated in a 2024 report on Mexico.
A report by CPJ and Amnesty Worldwide confirmed in 2024 that Mexico fails in its efforts to offer state-sanctioned safety to members of the press.
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