Mexican journalist who feared for her life killed in Tijuana
Journalist
Lourdes Maldonado López was killed on Sunday in northern Mexico's border city
of Tijuana, marking the third killing of a journalist in the country in two
weeks.
López
was shot to death inside a car in Tijuana's Santa Fe neighborhood, according to
a Sunday statement from the Baja California Attorney General Office.
Local
law enforcement first received a report on Sunday at 7 p.m. local time and
found López dead upon arrival, it said.
An
investigation is underway.
López
covered corruption and politics, and had been the victim of previous attacks
for her work, according to the human rights organization, Article 19, of which
López was a member.
In
March 2019, López told Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in his
daily press briefing that she feared for her life and asked for his
"support, help and labor justice."
López
was speaking about a labour dispute she had with Jaime Bonilla, who owns the
PSN media outlet where López had previously worked. López had sued the company
for unfair dismissal. Bonilla was sworn in as governor of Baja California in
November 2019 after running a successful campaign as a candidate of López
Obrador's ruling Morena party.
Just
days before she was killed, she won the lawsuit.
CNN
has reached out to Bonilla and PSN for comment.
In
an interview with the radio station Radio Formula that Bonilla posted to his
Twitter account on Monday, he said that while he hadn't seen Lopez for many
years, he had "always" had a "good relationship" with her.
Bonilla
said that he didn't know why Lopez had asked the president for protection,
saying "there was never a threat, not even an argument with her."
"Every
time something happens to journalists, it hurts," Bonilla said, also
offering his condolences to Lopez's family.
The
Committee to Protect Journalists said in a tweet it is "shocked" by
López's killing and called on authorities to "thoroughly and transparently
investigate the attack."
'A
spiral of violence'
Maldonado's
killing follows that of freelance photojournalist Alfonso Margarito Martínez
Esquivel on January 17 in Tijuana, and that of Jose Luis Gamboa -- a journalist
who founded and edited the Inforegio news website and co-founded and edited the
news website La Noticia -- on January 10 in Veracruz state.
The
Baja California Attorney General's Office told CNN that Esquivel's death
occurred outside his home after he suffered a gunshot to the head.
Esquivel,
who was 49, covered crime scene and security issues in Tijuana for local and
international media outlets.
The
Baja California State Human Rights Commission has called on authorities to
investigate the circumstances of his death.
Miguel
Mora, a representative for the commission said that "it's urgent to carry
out an expedited process of this case since any attack on journalists
constitutes an attack on freedom of expression and the right of society to be
informed."
Mexico
continues to be one of the world's deadliest countries for journalists,
according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
"Despite
some limited recent progress, it [Mexico] is sinking ever deeper into a spiral
of violence and impunity," according to RSF.
"Collusion
between officials and organised crime poses a grave threat to journalists'
safety and cripples the judicial system at all levels. Journalists who cover
sensitive political stories or crime, especially at the local level, are
warned, threatened and then often gunned down in cold blood. Others are
abducted and never seen again, or they flee abroad as the only way to ensure
their survival," RSF said.
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