RSF is part of commission helping to solve Mexican journalist's murder

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the authorities to quickly solve the murder of a journalist who covered local politics in Morelos, a state located to the south of Mexico City. RSF is part of a commission that is monitoring and assisting the investigation launched by the Morelos state authorities.

The editor of Acá en el Show, a local news outlet on Facebook with more than 10,000 followers, Roberto Carlos Figueroa was abducted and murdered on 26 April, joining the list of at least 37 journalists who have been slain in Mexico during the past six years under its outgoing president.

He was killed just one day after RSF denounced the lack of concern shown by Mexico’s presidential candidates for the terrible dangers to which the country’s journalists are exposed. RSF has joined a special commission consisting of journalists and press freedom defenders that is now assisting the Morelos state prosecutor’s office in investigating Figueroa’s murder.

“We urge the Morelos state prosecutor's office, which says it has evidence indicating that Roberto Carlos Figueroa was killed in his capacity as a journalist, to identify the perpetrators of this murder and bring them to justice. Mexico must give concrete undertakings to protect journalists. To this end, combatting impunity for crimes of violence against journalists must be an absolute priority for the Mexican authorities and a central concern of the candidates in the current elections.”

Artur Romeu

Director of RSF’s Latin America bureau

Gunmen abducted Figueroa on the morning of 26 April shortly after he dropped off his two daughters at their school in his hometown, Huitzilac, 60 km south of Mexico City. Later that morning, his wife received a ransom demand, which she reportedly paid. Nonetheless, after receipt of an anonymous call, Figueroa’s body was found a few hours later in his car on a dirt road in the nearby locality of Coajomulco.

Figueroa had worked for the past seven years for Acá en el Show, which covered local news, especially local politics, in the state of Morelos. He had just posted a story about the murder of a brother of a candidate for the municipal elections in Tetecala, a city in the west of the state.

Fifty journalists demonstrated outside the Morelos state prosecutor’s officer on 27 April in protest against the previous day’s murder, which they said was linked to Figueroa’s journalistic work.

Increase in violence in run-up to elections

Figueroa’s widow and two children are being given protection under the federal mechanism that was created for this purpose. Colleagues of Figueroa told RSF that the Acá en el Show office was previously the target of a break-in.

Already the country where the most journalists were murdered in 2022-2023, Mexico has been experiencing an increase in violence in the run-up to the general elections due to be held on 2 June.