Journalists from Acapulco protest after shooting attack against colleagues in southern Mexico

Acapulco (Mexico), Nov 29 (EFE).- Some 40 journalists from the port of Acapulco carried out a protest this Wednesday and joined the call for justice made previously by reporters from the city of Chilpancingo, capital of the state of Guerrero, south of Mexico, after the armed attack against four of his colleagues, which occurred on Tuesday.

In Chilpancingo, Mexican journalists marched accompanied by social organizations to condemn the attack on four reporters, of whom three were injured, and demand guarantees to carry out their work.

The media workers mobilized through the main streets of the city with banners in which they denounced that “the truth is not killed by killing journalists” and they reached the facilities of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), to which They accuse them of complicity in the attacks against communicators, due to omission and lack of justice.

Both mobilizations took place a day after three reporters, from a group of four, were wounded by gunshots in an attack against them in Chilpancingo: Víctor Mateo, collaborator of Quadratín Guerrero; Óscar Guerrero, from Primer Plano, and Jesús de la Cruz, from Reporte Guerrero.

In Acapulco, after 2:00 p.m. (20:00 GMT), the journalists met at the Costera Miguel Alemán and at first decided to hold their demonstration on the sidewalk, but then they blocked the lanes in one direction of the road. tour.

Reporter Ignacio Hernández Meneses, with a career spanning 36 years, called on the ministerial authorities “to do justice” for this violent act and assured that “it is a serious and worrying situation that is being experienced throughout the country.” Warrior status”.

“With these events, Guerrero – in Chilpancingo, Tierra Caliente and the northern area – has once again become a minefield to practice journalism, they have turned Guerrero into a zone of silence, especially in these regions, I am talking about Iguala, Taxco and Chilpancingo,” he told the media.

He recalled that the health status of his colleagues is “stable”; However, he said, “the situation that exists in the state is worrying, especially because no authority complies to guarantee the minimum security conditions and they do not comply with guaranteeing the right to freedom of the press, freedom of expression in Guerrero, That is serious and worrying,” he stressed.

While journalist Xavier Trujillo indicated that what happened in Chilpancingo on Tuesday was something unprecedented, “since there had never been a direct attack against four reporters after carrying out coverage.”

“In Guerrero, doing and practicing journalism is very difficult in some areas, there are areas of silence in which journalistic work cannot be carried out,” he pointed out.

In Guerrero, during 2023 there have been 17 armed attacks against journalists, leaving two journalists dead, who were registered in Acapulco, Nelson Matus and Gerardo Torres, as well as some more who have been displaced.

While on Thursday, November 23, three journalists and two family members were deprived of their freedom in Taxco de Alarcón, in the northern area of ​​Guerrero, days later they were released by the alleged captors, while this Wednesday, the last one, Alberto Toledo, son of journalist Marco Toledo, was released in the morning.

So far this year in Mexico, considered the most dangerous country without war for the press, four journalists have been murdered in relation to their work, according to data from the organization Article 19.

Guerrero is experiencing a wave of violence from organized crime and drug trafficking, ranking seventh nationally in the number of homicides, with 1,280 murders in the first three quarters of 2023, according to the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC).