Veteran Mexican journalist killed in hail of bullets leaving his Puebla home
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Mexican authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into a veteran radio and newspaper journalist’s murder by gunmen in the southeastern state of Puebla in order to determine whether it was linked to his journalism.
Marco Aurelio Ramírez Hernández, 69, was killed in broad daylight in a hail of bullets fired by men on a motorcycle as he was leaving his home in his car on 23 May in Tehuacán, Puebla’s second largest city, located 200 km southeast of Mexico City.
A commentator on a daily programme broadcast on Stereo Luz FM, a local radio station, and a former Tehuacán correspondent for Puebla’s Central newspaper, Ramírez specialised in covering crime, local journalists said. One of his investigations exposed the case of a paedophile priest who had been protected by Mexico’s Catholic Church hierarchy, they said.
After a long media career, Ramírez worked as the Tehuacán mayor’s security assistant for nine months in 2019. In this capacity, he helped dismantle a local criminal group involved in fuel smuggling, drug trafficking and human trafficking. This criminal group resumed its activities in the region last year, according to the local media.
“We condemn Ramírez’s murder in the strongest terms and, so that it does not join Mexico’s long list of unpunished murders of journalists, we call on the Puebla state prosecutor’s office to conduct a swift and transparent investigation to determine whether it was linked to his activity as a municipal official or to his journalism.”
According to RSF’s tally, more than 150 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000, making it the world’s most dangerous country for media personnel. Last year was the deadliest ever for journalists in Mexico.
