Journalists murdered in Mexico

The corrosion of societies has multiple active agents, but among the most degrading is the murder of those who inform their fellow citizens of what power, any power, prefers to keep hidden or falsified. The murder of three reporters within a week in Mexico, two of them in Tijuana, has brought citizens out of their lethargy this January. The case of Lourdes Maldonado has had a special impact because she participated in one of the morning conferences of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador almost three years ago. He asked for your support because he feared for his life. A bullet has proved him right in the midst of a crime that in Mexico is often compared to that of a country at war.The figure of 100 daily victims barely varies from year to year while the news almost routinely repeats that 10 women a day are murdered, a policeman every day, dozens of politicians on electoral campaigns and several journalists a year, among other massacres.

In Mexico, the tiredness of information professionals has resulted these days in numerous protests in 23 states and dozens of cities.

When it does not end their lives, the spiral of violence in which they live condemns them to forced silence.

There are areas in the country where the media no longer reports shootings, or organized crime, or the most corrupt politics.

They are called, with a sweet euphemism, zones of silence.

Many reporters have left the office or moved elsewhere to protect themselves.

The rot that nests in the institutions has a difficult way out when more than 90% of the cases go unpunished: the political power in collusion with the crime and an absent justice, due to fear or the same collusion of interests.

The media impact due to the pain of the latest victims has prompted governments and prosecutors to show some diligence in sentencing and investigations. But many wonder at what point the lights will go out and the dilatory practices of justice will return to their usual channels. Some cases have spent years, and sometimes decades, sleeping in court files, while the pattern repeats itself: uncomfortable information, threats and intimidation, and finally, the noise of gunpowder.

Killing a journalist is murdering the truth and silencing a necessary counter-power for democracy.

In dozens of cities in Mexico, this Tuesday a protest was ignited and a common voice was heard that needs the Government and the institutional mobilization of all its powers.

The weight of the State, although it is weak as in Mexico, has to fall on the criminals so that lost confidence can return.