Mexico: RSF condemns the murder of journalist Calletano de Jesús Guerrero, the second journalist under state protection to be killed in four months
Calletano de Jesús Guerrero, a journalist for Global Mexico, was murdered on 17 January in Teoloyucan, a municipality in the state of Mexico, even though he had been under federal protection since 2014. After Mauricio Cruz Solís, he is the second journalist to be killed since the inauguration of President Claudia Sheinbaum. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the president to immediately establish the working group she committed to creating to put in place a stronger protection plan for journalists and information in Mexico.
For over ten years, Calletano de Jesús Guerrero, a journalist with the news website Global México, has been under constant threat because of his work. On 17 January, he was murdered in Teoloyucan, a municipality in the state of Mexico, while benefiting from the federal protection programme for journalists and human rights defenders. It is the second brutal murder of a journalist since the inauguration of President Claudia Sheinbaum — a period of less than four months — and is yet another stark reminder of the serious shortcomings of Mexico’s protection programme.
In May 2024, during her election campaign, President Sheinbaum made a commitment to RSF to review and strengthen this protection programme and to draw up a comprehensive plan to guarantee the safety of journalists.
“RSF strongly condemns the murder of Calletano de Jesús Guerrero and calls on the Mexican government to take urgent measures to protect the lives and physical safety of journalists. Impunity and shortcomings in the protection system must be addressed without delay to avoid further tragedies. It is essential that concrete measures are taken to end the violence against journalists and to guarantee they can work in a safe environment. We urge President Claudia Sheinbaum to honour her pledge to our organisation and her country’s journalists and establish a working group responsible for creating a protection plan for Mexico’s journalists and information space.
Calletano de Jesús Guerrero was deputy director general of the news website Global México, which mainly covers national political news. In his last months, the 59-year-old journalist faced increased threats and even direct attacks. Unidentified individuals violently attacked his home on 13 January, just four days before his murder.
Although RSF acknowledges the recent progress made by the Public Prosecutor's Office in combating impunity for crimes committed against journalists — such as the indictment of one of the parties responsible for the murder of journalist Mauricio Cruz Solís, who died in October in the state of Michoacán, and the indictment of the perpetrator of journalist Alfredo Cardoso’s murder in 2021 — the federal protection mechanism is still inadequate. Over 650 Mexican journalists are currently enrolled in the program.
Mexico remains one of the most hazardous countries for media workers — the third most dangerous after Palestine and Pakistan, according to RSF’s 2024 Round-up. Mexico also accounted for over 30 per cent of the world’s missing journalist cases in 2024.
