The delegation of the European Union (EU) and the embassies of its member states in Mexico, as well as those of Norway and Switzerland, condemned this Thursday the murders of three Mexican journalists that occurred between May 5 and 9 in the Latin American country.
Through a statement, the EU pointed to the murders of journalists Luis Enrique Ramírez Ramos, on May 5 in the city of Culiacán, state of Sinaloa, and those of journalists Yesenia Mollinedo Falconi and Sheila Johana García Olivera, which occurred on May 9 in the municipality of Cosoleacaque, in the south of the state of Veracruz.
He recalled that Ramírez Ramos was the founding director of the news site Fuentes Fidedignas and a columnist for the portal El Debate, who was found dead after being kidnapped on the night of May 4 by armed men in the neighborhood where he lived.
While Mollinedo Falconi was director of the publication El Veraz and García Olivera worked as a photographer for the same publication.
In the note, the EU said that pending confirmation of the link between the murders and the journalistic work of the three victims, "the events that occurred in less than a week once again reflect the very serious degree of violence and intimidation that many journalists in Mexico face". Eleven journalists have been murdered in the country so far this year.
In addition, he said there is concern "due to the lack of results in many of the open investigations to clarify previous cases of murder of journalists in Mexico".
He pointed out that they have taken note of the arrests made in relation to the murders that occurred in the first months of 2022 "and we hope that the judicial procedures in these cases and others allow the material and intellectual authors to be identified and punished".
The EU offered its condolences and solidarity to the families and friends of the victims while calling on the Mexican authorities, at the federal and state levels, to effectively protect journalists so that they can carry out their work without having to put their lives at risk. lives.
In addition to carrying out prompt and transparent investigations and, given the alarming number of attacks against journalists in the country, he said that it is urgent that all competent authorities "Make use of all the means at your disposal to generate favorable environments so that journalists in Mexico can exercise their profession freely and without threats.
According to figures from the organization Article 19, since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came to power in December 2018, there have been 1,945 attacks against the press in the country, including 35 murders, 11 so far this year and two disappearances, 85% more than in the first three years of President Enrique Peña Nieto.
