Luis Enrique Ramirez Ramos has become the ninth journalist to be killed in Mexico in 2022, in what has proven to be a particularly deadly year for media workers in the country.

Ramirez Ramos’s body was found on a dirty road wrapped in plastic near a junkyard in the capital of Sinaloa, with prosecutors saying he died from multiple blows to the head. A Representative of the media rights group, Reporters Without Borders, Balbina Flores, disclosed that “It was definitely a murder”.

According to the group, Ramirez is the ninth journalist killed so far this year (2022) in Mexico, making the country the most dangerous for media workers outside of war zones. As it stands, the reason for the killing is not immediately known, but Sinaloa state was the stronghold of notorious narcotics kingpin, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman’s cartel.

In Provincial Mexico, reporters are often targeted for highlighting drug cartels and their connections to local politicians and police.

Professional and Capable Journalist

Ramirez Ramos was listed as the Founding Director of the Fuentes Fidedignas (Reliable Sources) news website, which reported that he was abducted near his house hours before his dead body was found.

While the website has covered very little on drug cartel violence that plagues Sinaloa, it reported often on local political disputes, which is a risky subject for reporters in the state. A fellow reporter in the state capital of Culiacan, Francisco Chiquete, disclosed that Ramirez Ramos expressed fears about retaliation for his kind of work, far back in 2015. Chiquete revealed that “Luis Enrique Ramírez was a very professional and capable journalist”.

Violence Against Journalists

Ramirez Ramos, who also columns for the El Debate newspaper, previously lamented the expanding scope of violence against journalists.

“I don’t write about narcos, I speak neither good nor ill of the narcos. Humberto Millan didn’t either, and that was not enough to keep him alive and working”, Ramirez Ramos disclosed in a 2015 radio interview after the killing of a fellow reporter, Humberto Millan.

“What is happening? Humberto Millan and I only write about politicians, and now it turns out that we can’t write about politicians either. So, what are journalists in Sinaloa going to write about?”
Luis Enrique Ramirez Ramos

Prosecutors’ Side of the Story

Prosecutors said Ramirez Ramos did not report threats to police. They also said he was not reported missing prior to his body being found.

Other Journalists who have also been killed this year are Jose Luis Gamboa, Margarito Martinez, Lourdes Maldonado, Roberto Toledo, Heber Fernando Lopez, Jorge El Choche Camero, Juan Carlos Muniz, and Armando Linares Lopez. On Friday, May 5, 2022, the Media Freedom group, focusing on Article 19, called on authorities to ensure “a prompt, impartial and diligent investigation” into Ramirez Ramos’s murder.

The Government Failure

While Mexico President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, promised a “zero impunity” programme to investigate the killings of media workers, rights groups have repeatedly accused the state and federal governments of not doing enough to prevent or investigate the killings sufficiently.

Press groups intimated that President Lopez Obrador’s daily criticism of journalists made them more vulnerable to violence. However, the President’s Spokesman, Jesus Ramirez, condemned the killing, pointing out that “We will reinforce security measures for journalists. There will be no impunity”.

In February 2022, the Inter American Press Association called on the President to “immediately suspend the aggressions and insults, because such attacks from the top of power encourage violence against the press”. A month later (March), the European Union (EU) approved a resolution calling on Mexican authorities to refrain from issuing any communication that could “stigmatise human rights defenders, journalists and media workers, exacerbate the atmosphere against them, or distort their lines of investigation”.