RSF hails release of three journalists kidnapped in southern Mexico
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomes the release on 25 November of three journalists who were kidnapped by gunmen in two raids earlier last week in Taxco, in southern Mexico’s Guerrero state, and calls on the authorities to guarantee their protection and bring those responsible for their abduction to justice.
Marco Antonio Toledo, the editor of the local weekly El Espectador de Taxco, was abducted with his wife and son from his Tasco home on 19 November, while husband-and-wife reporters Alberto Sánchez Juárez and Silvia Nayssa Arce Avilés, who run the local Facebook news page RedSiete, were kidnapped on a Tasco street three days later.
Confirming the release of the three journalists, the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office said Toledo’s wife, Guadalupe Denova, was also released but their son, Alberto Toledo Denova, has not yet been found.
“The release of the three journalists is unusual good news in one of the world’s deadliest countries for the media. The authorities must provide all necessary assistance to the victims, ensure their protection, and continue their efforts to locate journalist Marco Antonio Toledo’s son. The perpetrators of these abductions must be brought to justice and light must be shed on the circumstances in which they were carried out."
Mexico is ranked 128th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2023 World Press Freedom Index.
