Nelson Matus, in a picture from his social networks.
Gunmen murdered journalist Nelson Matus in Guerrero this Saturday. Matus was in his car at the back of a store in the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood of Acapulco. As local media reported, hitmen approached him, shot at him and killed him. Matus was already lying lifeless next to the vehicle. Guerrero authorities did not provide any information about the incident.
Matus’ murder is the fifth murder of a journalist this year in Mexico and the second in Acapulco. In May, gunmen murdered journalist Gerardo Torres Rentería in the port, this time at his home. At 59, Torres was a cameraman at Telemundo and co-founder of TV Azteca Guerrero, although he had lived away from the media for a number of years.
According to the Article 19 organization, at least 161 journalists allegedly linked to their work were murdered in Mexico between 2000 and 2022. There were 13 in the past year alone, the most fatalities on record. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which counts murders and violent deaths of journalists and media workers, brings the total down to 142.
Overall, CPJ considers Mexico to be the world’s deadliest country for the press. Jan-Albert Hootsen, the committee’s representative in the country, told this newspaper last year that Mexico is the only country where the level of lethal violence against journalists has not changed, but has remained the same across different governments. “Violence is a constant. And the conclusion after three years of the López Obrador government is that not only has it failed to solve the dozens of murders of journalists, defenders and activists, but it has also done very little to prevent them.”
Matus’s murder comes just days after the last. Last week, authorities in Nayarit found the remains of Luis Martín Sánchez, a correspondent in the region for newspaper La Jornada. Martín Sánchez had disappeared three days earlier in Tepic, the capital of Nayarit. His wife reported his absence when he stopped answering messages and calls. The journalist’s body was found in a plastic bag with handcuffs.
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