Luis Enrique Ramirez Ramos has develop into the ninth journalist killed in Mexico in 2022 in what has confirmed to be a very lethal 12 months for media staff within the nation.
Ramirez Ramos’s physique was discovered on a dust highway wrapped in plastic close to a junkyard within the capital of Sinaloa state on Thursday. Prosecutors mentioned he died from a number of blows to the top.
“It was undoubtedly a homicide,” Balbina Flores, a consultant of media rights group Reporters With out Borders, advised the AFP information company.
Based on the group, Ramirez is the ninth journalist killed to this point this 12 months in Mexico, making the nation probably the most harmful for media staff outdoors of conflict zones.
A motive for the killing was not instantly identified, however Sinaloa state is the stronghold of infamous narcotics kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel.
Reporters are sometimes focused in provincial Mexico for highlighting drug cartels and their connections to native politicians and police.
‘Skilled and succesful journalist’
Ramirez Ramos was listed because the founding director of the Fuentes Fidedignas, or Dependable Sources, web site, which reported he was kidnapped close to his home hours earlier than his physique was discovered.
Whereas the web site has lined comparatively little on drug cartel violence that plagues Sinaloa, it did report usually on native political disputes, which is usually a dangerous topic for reporters within the state.
Francisco Chiquete, a fellow reporter within the state capital, Culiacan, mentioned Ramirez Ramos had expressed fears about retaliation for his work as way back as 2015.
“Luis Enrique Ramírez was a really skilled and succesful journalist,” he advised The Related Press information company.
Ramirez Ramos, who additionally columns for the El Debate newspaper, beforehand lamented the increasing scope of violence in opposition to journalists.
“I don’t write about narcos, I communicate neither good nor unwell of the narcos. Humberto Millan didn’t both, and that was not sufficient to maintain him alive and dealing,” he mentioned in a 2015 interview with MVS radio station after the killing of fellow reporter Humberto Millan.
“What is occurring? Humberto Millan and I solely write about politicians, and now it seems that we are able to’t write about politicians both. So what are journalists in Sinaloa going to put in writing about?”
Prosecutors mentioned Ramirez Ramos didn’t report threats to police. In addition they mentioned he was not reported lacking previous to his physique being discovered.
Native media in Sinaloa, a state in northern Mexico, report the homicide of journalist Luis Enrique Ramírez. He had beforehand been reported lacking. https://t.co/ZR29lTagld
— Jan-Albert Hootsen (@jahootsen) May 5, 2022
These additionally killed this 12 months have been Jose Luis Gamboa, Margarito Martinez, Lourdes Maldonado, Roberto Toledo, Heber Fernando Lopez, Jorge “El Choche” Camero, Juan Carlos Muniz, and Armando Linares Lopez.
On Thursday, media freedom group Article 19 referred to as on authorities to make sure “a immediate, neutral and diligent investigation” into Ramirez Ramos’s homicide.
Whereas President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has promised a “zero impunity” programme to research the killings of media staff, rights teams have repeatedly accused the state and federal governments of not doing sufficient to forestall or examine the killings sufficiently.
Press teams have mentioned Lopez Obrador’s day by day criticism of journalists has made them extra weak to violence.
In February, the Inter American Press Affiliation referred to as on the president to “instantly droop the aggressions and insults, as a result of such assaults from the highest of energy encourage violence in opposition to the press”.
A month later, the European Union authorized a decision calling on Mexican authorities to chorus from issuing any communication that might “stigmatise human rights defenders, journalists and media staff, exacerbate the environment in opposition to them, or distort their strains of investigation”.
The president’s spokesman, Jesus Ramirez, condemned the latest killing on Thursday. “We’ll reinforce safety measures for journalists. There will probably be no impunity.”