MEXICO

PEN International is shocked to learn that yet another journalist has been killed in Mexico. Tijuana Informativo Director Ramón Abel López Aguilar was kidnapped in Tijuana, Baja California on October 14, 2012, and shot in the head. PEN calls for a thorough investigation into his murder and for those responsible to be brought to justice. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION  
Ramón Abel López Aguilar (53), director of the web site Tijuana Informativo and a photojournalist, was abducted by an armed group from his home in Tijuana, Baja California, on October 14, 2012. His body was found on a street in Tijuana the next morning; he died of a single gun shot to the head, according to the state attorney general’s office. The state authorities are reportedly investigating the murder, including the possibility that the shooting was related to his journalistic work.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to be a writer or journalist. Since 2000, over 80 writers, journalists, and bloggers have been murdered and another 15 have disappeared. Most of these crimes have not been properly investigated and there have been only a handful of convictions.

The rate at which journalists are being killed has accelerated rapidly: since January 2012, nine print journalists and writers have been murdered in Mexico.