Violence Against Mexican Journalists Now More Concentrated in the Southern States Mariana Munoz - Journalism in the Americas
go to original July 24, 2015

“Death in Veracruz” explores the manner in which the lives of journalists in Veracruz have changed, working under threat in recent years. (AJ+)

In the last decade, Mexico has become one of the most dangerous countries of the world for journalists, largely due to the so-called War on Drugs in the northern region that borders the United States.

Press freedom advocacy organizations, however, noticed a change in the geography of attacks against journalists, which have become more common in southern states. Another change is that the suspects in the attacks are not members of drug cartels, but public officials and police officers.

All six cases of murders of journalists in 2015 have been in the south of Mexico. In one week alone this July, three journalists were killed in Oaxaca, Veracruz and Guanajuato, three southern states.

Statistics from Periodistas en Riesgo, a site that tracks and documents attacks against journalists in Mexico, seem to confirm that trend.

Javier Garza Ramos, an International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) Knight International Journalism Fellow who oversees Periodistas en Riesgo, recently wrote an article for El País where he explores the shift of violence from the north to the south.

Garza explains that the shift occurred because, in general, violence in the north decreased (with the exception of Tamaulipas) and shifted attention to the increasing incidents in the central and southern states.

In an interview with the Knight Center, Garza stated that there is a misconception on who is doing the most harm, however.

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