The murder of Regina Martínez is the fifth in 17 months in the state since Javier Duarte assumed the governorship.
(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – 29 April 2012 – Regina Martínez, a correspondent with the weekly magazine Proceso in the state of Veracruz (East coast), was killed on 28 April 2012, at her home in the city of Xalapa. The murder of Martínez is the fifth in 17 months since Javier Duarte assumed the governorship. According to reports, a neighbor reported to authorities that the reporter’s house in the Felipe Carrillo Puerto neighbourhood had been open for several hours and it appeared no one was home.
Agents of the Secretary of Public Security arrived at the home and inside they found the body with clear marks of suffocation and strangulation. In late December of last year, her house had been robbed. Martínez had been a reporter with Proceso for over a decade and previously worked as a correspondent for the national newspaper La Jornada.
During the past 18 months of the administration of Governor Javier Duarte, five journalists have been killed, including Noel Lopez Olguin (Noticias Acayucan), Miguel Ángel López, Misael López Solana and Yolanda López Solana (Notiver). All cases remain in complete impunity.
In addition to these figures, in 2011 alone 13 journalists were forcibly displaced due to the threats they were facing and Gabriel Manuel Fonseca disappeared. Shortly before the end of the year, a newspaper in the city of Cordoba, El Buen Tono, was attacked by an armed group who set fire to their premises.
ARTICLE 19 strongly condemns the murder of Martínez and the pattern of violence and impunity that exists in the state of Veracruz, where authorities have consistently failed to fulfill their international obligations to guarantee the free exercise of freedom of expression.
Because of this, ARTICLE 19 calls once again on the federal government and authorities of the state of Veracruz, to investigate diligently the facts of the case and not to dismiss, as has happened in other cases, the work of Martínez as a reporter.
We also request that security measures are offered to the families and colleagues of Regina Martínez, with whom we express our deepest condolences.
MORE INFORMATION:
Veracruz journalist’s murder underscores need to end impunity (RSF, 30 April 2012)
Investigative reporter murdered (IPI, 30 April 2012)
Body of Mexican journalist found beaten, strangled (CPJ, 30 April 2012)
IAPA condemns murder of journalist (1 May 2012)
Investigative journalist murdered in Veracruz (WiPC, 2 May 2012)
WAN-IFRA calls on Mexican authorities to solve case of murdered journalist (WAN-IFRA, 2 May 2012)
