Journalist Pedro Pablo Kumul murdered, the seventeenth crime against the press in Mexico this year

The journalist and broadcaster Pedro Pablo Kumul has been assassinated this Monday in El Castillo, a town in Xalapa, in the State of Veracruz, as confirmed by the news portal where he worked, AX Noticias.

The murder of the reporter is added to another 16 homicides recorded by Article 19, an organization in defense of press freedom in Mexico, since the beginning of 2022. The country has become the deadliest in the world for the press, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Veracruz becomes the entity where more journalists have been murdered this year.

Kumul's death is the fourth fatal attack suffered by a communicator after the attacks suffered by José Luis Gamboa, on January 15, and Yessenia Mollinedo and Sheila Johana García, assassinated on May 9.

The event took place on the afternoon of this Monday, when, according to local media, he was shot several times while driving the taxi in which he also worked.

Kumul's body was found lifeless inside the vehicle, which ended up crashing into a post.

Pedro Pablo Kumul in a photograph spread on social networks.RR.

H.H.

According to the media, the murderers fled before the authorities arrived.

From AX News they shared their condolences with the victim's relatives.

"We regret the terrible event that happened this afternoon in the town of Castillo, where our friend, presenter and reporter for this medium, lost his life," they reported.

In the letter, the news portal has asked that the "cowardly act" be investigated so that it does not go unpunished, "like many others."

Kumul's name joins the list of 16 communication professionals murdered since the beginning of the year: José Luis Gamboa, Margarito Martínez, Lourdes Maldonado, Roberto Toledo, Herber López, Jorge Luis Camero, Juan Carlos Muñiz, Armando Linares, Luis Enrique Ramírez, Yessenia Mollinedo, Sheila Johana García, Antonio de la Cruz, Ernesto Méndez, Juan Arjón, Fredid Román and Cándida Cristal.

In 2021, Mexico registered 35,625 homicides, which left a rate of 28 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

In the case of Veracruz, the figure was 945 homicides, a figure far from Guanajuato, the state that, with 4,333 cases, was the one that registered the highest number.

With the latter, there are 156 communicators killed in possible connection with their journalistic work in the country since 2000, according to the organization Article 19.

Veracruz is the third territory with the highest impunity in Mexico, only behind the State of Mexico and Baja California, according to the study

, coordinated by the University of the Americas Puebla (UDLAP).

In the analysis, the experts conclude that in none of the country's territories is justice delivered optimally.

In its index, which goes from zero (territories with less impunity) to 100 (in which there is greater impunity), the study places Veracruz (65.56 points) above the national average (60.08), although far from it. State of Mexico (74.55).

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