Ernesto Méndez Bio – Ernesto Méndez Wiki
Ernesto Mendez, who headed local outlet “Tu Voz,” had previously received threats, human rights organization Article 19 said, and now he was killed among four people inside a bar in central Mexico.
AGE:
Ernesto Méndez was 48 years old.
DETAIL OF INCIDENCE:
A journalist was among four people killed inside a bar in central Mexico, becoming at least the 13th media worker killed in the country this year.
San Luis de la Paz Mayor Luis Sánchez said Ernesto Méndez, director of the news site Tu Voz, or Your Voice, was with four other men when they were attacked. He said the fifth person was seriously wounded and taken to a hospital.
Guanajuato Gov. Diego Rodríguez Vallejo “strongly condemned” the Tuesday night killings via Twitter Wednesday.
Sánchez said that at this point, whether the attack was related to Méndez’s journalistic work, his role as representative of local businesses in planning an upcoming fair, or something else.
Press freedom organization Article 19 called on the government to offer protection to Méndez’s colleagues and relatives.
Méndez had also worked until three years ago at the news site Zona Franca, according to its director Carmen Martínez.
Zona Franca said that he had received threats in the past, AFP reported. It said he celebrated with family and friends when a family-owned bar was attacked.
It was not immediately clear whether Méndez was enrolled in the federal government’s protection program for journalists and human rights defenders under threat.
While organized crime is often involved in journalist killings, minor town officials or politicians with political or criminal motivations are also suspects. Journalists running small news outlets in Mexico’s interior are easy targets.
Guanajuato, a thriving industrial region, has become one of Mexico’s most violent states due to turf wars between rival gangs fighting to control trafficking routes for drugs and stolen fuel.
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