Monterrey reporter becomes 5th journalist murdered in Mexico in 2018
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for an impartial investigation into yesterday’s murder of Alicia Díaz González, the fifth Mexican journalist to be killed in 2018, and condemns what is now an unbearable climate for the media in Mexico.
Díaz, 52, had only just been killed when her sons discovered her body yesterday morning in her home in Monterrey, the capital of the northern state of Nuevo León. It bore the marks of multiple blows, along with stab wounds to the back of her neck. As nothing was taken in the attack, everything suggests that she was the victim of a targeted killing.
“All lines of investigation are open,” a Nuevo León judicial official said.
Previously employed by the El Norte and La Moneda newspapers, Díaz had worked for the El Financiero newspaper since January, covering local business, real estate, taxation and public investment. Colleagues told Agence France-Presse that she did not cover “sensitive” stories.
“Given the initial indications, the Nuevo León police and judicial authorities must prioritize the hypothesis that this execution-style killing was linked to the victim’s work and they must identify the instigators as soon possible,” said Emmanuel Colombié, the head of RSF’s Latin America bureau.
“The list of journalists murdered in Mexico keeps on getting longer without any bold initiative by the government. The situation is becoming untenable and Mexico’s next president will have the immense responsibility of ending the spiral of violence.”
The four other journalists who have been murdered this year in Mexico are Juan Carlos Huerta Martínez on 15 May, Leobardo Vázquez on 21 March, Pamika Montenegro on 5 February and Carlos Domínguez Rodríguez on 13 January.
Ranked 147th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2018 World Press Freedom Index, Mexico is deadlier for media personnel than any other country not at war.
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