Mexico news anchor survives shooting amid surge in violence against journalists - The Guardian

One of Mexico’s astir salient quality anchors has survived an evident assassination effort adjacent his location successful the capital, successful 1 of the astir brazen attacks against a writer the state has seen successful caller decades.

Ciro Gómez Leyva, a quality anchor for the nationalist quality network, Grupo Imagen, was driving a bulletproof SUV erstwhile the pillion rider connected a motorcycle opened occurrence connected him precocious connected Thursday.

Gómez was unharmed, but the onslaught highlighted the melodramatic escalation successful unit against Mexican journalists nether the medication of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known arsenic Amlo.

Forty-two journalists were killed during the archetypal 3 years of Amlo’s word arsenic president, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That compared to forty-five journalists killed successful the full six-year word of the past president, Enrique Peña Nieto.

López Obrador has repeatedly lambasted journalists captious of his administration, and unit against journalists has increased by 85% since helium took office, according to the property state organization, Article 19. Earlier this year, the manager of the non-profit received a decease threat the aforesaid time helium presented a study connected the expanding dangers faced by journalists successful the country.

On Wednesday, Amlo singled retired Gómez for disapproval during a regular conception of his regular quality league dedicated to what the president calls the media’s “lies of the week”.

At Friday’s property conference, the president denounced the onslaught connected Gómez. “He’s a journalist, a quality being, but he’s besides a person of nationalist opinion. Hurting a fig similar Ciro creates a batch of governmental instability,” Amlo said.

Mexico City was erstwhile considered safer than galore regions of the state for journalists. But that is changing.

“It’s highly worrying that specified a happening tin hap successful Mexico City,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, the Mexico typical for the Committee to Protect Journalists, of the assassination attempt. “It besides speaks volumes of the brazenness of immoderate of these people, that they are consenting to spell this acold attacking a idiosyncratic with specified a precocious illustration successful the media.”

The information for journalists based successful the metropolis has accrued successful caller years. Rubén Espinoza, a lensman for Proceso Magazine, fled the authorities of Veracruz for Mexico City aft receiving decease threats portion covering corruption allegations against then-governor Javier Duarte. He was changeable dormant successful his flat successful 2015, on with 4 different people.

Just past year, the person of the hyper-violent New Generation Jalisco Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known arsenic “El Mencho,” threatened to termination Azucena Uresti, an anchor for the Milenio TV network, who besides lives successful the capital.

And authorities officials person not been spared the unit here.

In 2020, the city’s constabulary main survived an onslaught successful 1 of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods by gunmen wielding armor-piercing .50 caliber instrumentality guns.