Another Veracruz Journalist Shot as Attacks Against Journalist Soar

VERACRUZ, Mexico — A reporter in Mexico’s Gulf coast state of Veracruz was reported in

serious condition after being shot outside his home early Wednesday in a region plagued by drug cartel violence. It adds to a string of attacks on reporters in a country considered one of the most dangerous places to practice journalism

Regeneration Mx. reported that although it has not been an official part by the statement by authorities of the Public Security Secretariat of the State of Veracruz or the State Government, the first versions indicate that Armando Arrieta received at least four 9 mm caliber bullet hits, He was rushed to a clinic, where his condition is reported as severe.

The president of the state commission for the protection of journalists, Ana Laura Perez, said a bullet punctured the lung of Armando Arrieta Granados, who worked as the news editor for the newspaper La Opinion de Poza Rica.

 Armando Arrieta holds a Masters Degree in Higher Education from the Universidad Veracruzana and since 2005 was a harsh critic of the authorities, and has demanded the clarification of the murder of his leader and owner of the same newspaper, Raul Gibb Guerrero, in April of that year. year.

It was the second shooting attack on a journalist in two days in Mexico. A bodyguard protecting a threatened journalist was shot to death on Tuesday in the Baja California resort of San Jose del Cabo.Journalist Julio Omar Gomez was not wounded in that attack at his home. But his bodyguard was reportedly shot when he tried to repel the attack.

Gomez previously ran an internet news site, and currently works for the city press department. He had been the apparent target of two previous attacks on his home, and the government had supplied bodyguards to protect him.

Wednesday’s shooting also was the fifth attack on journalists this month; the previous three were fatal.

La Jornada newspaper reporter Miroslava Breach was shot to death on March 23 outside her home in the northern city of Chihuahua.  (DD; Borderland Beat story here)

Newspaper columnist Ricardo Monlui was killed on March 19 in another part of Veracruz. On March 2, Cecilio Pineda Birto, a freelancer, was slain in southern Guerrero state.

Sara Irene Herrerias, Mexico’s assistant attorney general for human rights, said federal authorities “are very upset about what is going on.”

TeleSur reported that “If You Want to Murder a Journalist in Mexico, Chances Are You’ll Get Away with It.  It said that Article 19 will reveal in a report to be released next week hat  points out that 2016 was “the most violent year for the press in Mexico” with a record of 426 attacks and 11 journalists murdered, the largest number in the last 10 years.

The Office of the Prosecutor for Crimes Against Freedom of Expression created eight years ago opened 800 investigations related to attacks on journalists. Of these, only three ended in a sentence for perpetrators, representing the staggering 99.7 percent of impunity, according to the document.

The report also claims that half of the attacks last year were perpetrated physically or intellectually by a public official, in different levels of government, including two extrajudicial executions. There were also 72 attacks against journalists on the internet, including a case of digital espionage.

Speaking on Tuesday after the attack on Gomez, but before Arrieta Granados was shot, Herrerias said “the degree of violence is something that concerns us and I know that the biggest thing is to have some kind of response, so that impunity doesn’t prevail.”

“The message is clear, without truth or justice, the press is an easy target of its aggressors,” says the Article 19 report.

So far, there is no evidence that the various attacks are directly connected.

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AP writer Maria Versa contributed to this report.