This is the second murder of a media professional in a week in Tijuana. A journalist was “murdered”, Sunday January 23, in this city of the North-West of Mexico located at the border of the United States, announced the regional parquet floor. Collaborator of several Mexican publications, photographer Margarito Martinez was killed on Monday January 17 near his home, also in Tijuana.
Lourdes Maldonado Lopez was killed by “firearm while in a vehicle”, said the general prosecutor’s office of the State of Baja California. An investigation has been opened.
This journalist had worked as a correspondent for a Mexican media in Tijuana in the years 1990. She then worked for several media, including Primer System of Noticias (NHP) led by Jaime Bonilla, governor of the state of Baja California from 2019 to the end of 2021, within a coalition integrating the presidential party Morena.
“We fear for my life”
Mme Lopez had won a lawsuit a few days ago against NHP, whom she had been suing for nine years for unfair dismissal, had reported the Mexican press. The journalist had asked the President of the Republic, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, “support, help and justice because they fear for my life”, according to a video reposted on social networks at the announcement of his assassination.
¿Que pasa in #BajaCalifornia? Our acaban de confirmar el asesinato de otra colega in #Tijuana. Se trata de la peri… https://t.co/rnSNHIMww9
“I have been on trial for six years with [Jaime Bonilla] », she declared there, calling on the head of state during one of his press conferences. The video was recorded two years ago, according to some sources. The president had sent her back to his “social communication coordinator” (spokesperson) for “that he [l]help and [l]support, so that we seek justice, so that there is no abuse of power”.
Mexico is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, exposed to reprisals from drug cartels operating in several of the country’s 32 states.
At least seven journalists were killed in 2021, according to a count by Agence France-Presse, which tries each time to establish whether the victim was still active and whether his journalistic work cost him his life. According to figures from the Human Rights Commission, around 100 journalists have been killed since 2000.