The Government of Mexico says that an organized crime group is responsible for the murder of two journalists

Mexican journalists fire Lourdes Maldonado 1:31

(CNN) --

The Mexican government said a drug cartel is responsible for the deaths of two journalists killed in the country this year.

"There is a link between the murder of Lourdes Maldonado and that of Margarito Martínez with the same criminal group," said Security Undersecretary Ricardo Mejía on Thursday.

"It is a remnant of the Arellano Félix Cartel, headed by a man nicknamed 'Cabo 16,' who was also arrested."

In both cases, the authorities said, the motive would have been the denunciation of criminal acts.

“In retaliation for the responsible civic action of Lourdes, if she denounced these criminal acts, they would have victimized her, this same group was also the one that murdered Margarito Martínez,” said Mejía.

Mejía said that in the case of Margarito Martínez there are ten detainees in criminal proceedings and another three for the murder of Lourdes Maldonado.

“This is the criminal cell where several people are detained, and the leader of this group, 'Cabo 16', is also detained.

All linked to the murders of comrades Lourdes Maldonado and Margarito Martínez”.

Lourdes Maldonado was shot to death inside her car in Tijuana in January.

In 2019, Maldonado told Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at his daily press conference that she feared for her life and asked for her "support, help and labor justice."

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Maldonado's murder followed that of photojournalist Alfonso Margarito Martínez Esquivel on January 17 in Tijuana.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), he was a veteran photographer with more than two decades of experience in Tijuana.

The Baja California prosecutor's office had said in a Facebook post that an unidentified gunman shot him at his home.

According to the Mexican government, six journalists have been murdered in the country in 2022. They are José Luis Gamboa Arenas, Margarito Martínez Esquivel, Lourdes Maldonado, Heber López Vásquez, Armando Linares and Juan Carlos Muñiz.

murdered journalists