Senators from the foreign relations committee asked the administration of President Joe Biden to clarify the deaths of journalists in Tijuana and to demand a stop to the violence against journalists in Mexico and the criticism of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that puts the lives of reporters at risk.
“President Andrés Manuel López Obrador continues to harshly criticize journalists who question his government and has not effectively defended freedom of expression in Mexico,” Senators Tim Kaine and Marco Rubio said in a joint letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinke.
"The years of violence against journalists in Mexico cannot begin to diminish as long as the country's leader continues to normalize hostility towards freedom of expression," the senators pointed out, mentioning journalists Lourdes Maldonado and Margarito Martínez, murdered in Tijuana only a few days apart from one another.
“Nine journalists were murdered in Mexico in 2021. Four have been brutally murdered in January of this year alone,” the joint letter read.
They stated to Secretary Blinke that “Reporters Without Borders ranked Mexico 143rd out of 180 countries in its 2021 World Press Freedom Index, and more than 50 journalists have been killed since the administration of President López Obrador came to power in 2018.”
"Mexico remains the deadliest country for journalists in the Western Hemisphere and one of the deadliest and most dangerous in the world," the senators declared.
They also questioned that "for years, press freedom advocates have denounced the Mexican government's inaction to seriously address the threats journalists face."
The senators requested that the State Department "provide detailed information on what specific steps it will take to ensure transparency and accountability for the recent murders of journalists and to better address the crisis of freedom of expression in Mexico”
Although the Mexican government established the Protection Mechanism for
Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in 2012: A program aimed at strengthening protections for journalists and upholding press freedom, “the dangers journalists face have not diminished,” they said.
“It has become increasingly clear that current efforts to protect journalists are inadequate and that the United States must work with Mexico to develop a more comprehensive plan to reduce the violence that destabilizes Mexico and specifically affects journalists,” the senators wrote.
They recounted that “on January 23, 2022, Lourdes Maldonado López, a journalist who covered corruption and politics and who publicly expressed fear for her life to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was shot to death in Tijuana. She is the fourth journalist murdered in Mexico in January. The other three were Margarito Martínez Esquivel, José Luis Gamboa, and Roberto Toledo, who also reported on the link between criminal groups and local authorities.
Democrat Kaine, vice chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is now pushing for passage of his International Press Freedom Act, bipartisan legislation that would promote global press freedom by creating a Coordinator for International Press Freedom in the State Department.
The bill would also authorize new funding for programs that help keep foreign journalists safe; use funds to prevent, investigate and prosecute crimes against journalists abroad; and create a new visa category to allow threatened journalists to come to the United States.
