CELAYA, MEXICO – A Mexican journalist known for reporting on one of the country’s most threatening crime fronts, Alejandro Martínez, was murdered by gunmen on Sunday. His death was confirmed by his news outlet. The incident also resulted in injuries to two bodyguards assigned to Martínez by the government. Their current conditions remain unspecified.
Martínez’s news page focused on local news and the criminal underworld of Celaya, recognized as the most perilous city for law enforcement officers in Mexico. The local police department reported that the assailants were operating from a separate vehicle when they fatally shot Martínez.
The Guanajuato state prosecutors have initiated an investigation into the murder. The journalist had been assigned protection after he reported receiving threats. Before his untimely demise, Martínez reported on a lethal car accident on a dangerous highway stretch. Following the attack, his injured bodyguards managed to get him to a hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
Guanajuato currently has the highest murder rates out of all of Mexico’s 32 states, primarily due to an ongoing turf dispute between the Jalisco drug cartel and the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang. Celaya has seen 18 police officers fatally shot this year in a city with a population of about half a million. Most of these killings are suspected to be the handiwork of drug cartels.
Mexico presents an extreme threat to media personnel, with journalists often the targets of retaliation for their work. Since 2000, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 141 journalists and media workers have been killed, 61 of them in apparent retribution for their work.
The year 2022 witnessed one of the deadliest timeframes for journalists in Mexico, with at least 15 known killings. The vast majority of these crimes have gone unresolved.