Cuernavaca, Morelos: Journalist Manuel González Reyes Executed; 47 Reporters Have Been Killed In AMLO's Government

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Manuel González Reyes, owner and reporter of the PM Morelos news agency, was shot dead, around 4:37 p.m. on Tuesday, September 28, while he had finished eating at a post installed in front of a minibus terminal, in the Miraval neighborhood, next to the Pullman de Morelos bus line, in the municipality of Cuernavaca.

Witnesses to the crime, quoted by local media, indicated that the reporter had just eaten when he got up from his seat to allegedly answer a phone call, and at that moment a motorcycle arrived at the scene with two subjects on board, dressed in black, who shot him in the face, with 9 mm caliber weapons.

González Reyes, 55 years old, lay next to a Volkswagen car, black, on De la Estación street that connects Plan de Ayala Avenue, one of the busiest in the capital of Morelen, with Leandro Valle Street, in the Miraval neighborhood.

Elements of the State Public Security Commission (CES) and the Red Cross attended the place, who confirmed that there was a lifeless subject. Meanwhile, elements of the Coordinated Command made tours of the area.

At the scene, at least two nine-millimeter caliber shells were found, which were collected as evidence of the crime by experts from the Attorney General's Office (FGE), who took charge of the case.

"He had injuries caused by a firearm near the cephalic limb [...] At the moment there is no information that refers to the number of people involved in the aggression, and at least one person would have used a firearm at a short distance against him to immediately flee apparently to Colonia Patios de la Estación," the FGE detailed.

The last broadcast that González Reyes made live was this same, prior to his murder, from the Vista Hermosa neighborhood of Jiutepec, to denounce the absence of authorities in support of the families that were affected by the tearing down of a hill.

"The support of deputies, local, federal, senators and the Governor and other municipal presidents who also live on our taxes is nowhere to be seen here," González Reyes concluded his connection via Facebook Live, on the PM Noticias page.

This agency was created by González Reyes in January 2017. Before that, the reporter covered press conferences, demonstrations and citizen protests independently. Also, during the last electoral process, he participated as a candidate of the recently created Citizen Welfare Party (BC), for the Municipal Presidency of Emiliano Zapata, where the journalist lived.

OTHER CRIMES OF JOURNALISTS IN MORELOS

In July 2019, the lifeless body of journalist Rogelio Barragán Pérez, director of the Guerrero “Al Instante” news portal, was located in the municipality of Zacatepec, with traces of handcuffed torture and gunshot wounds. The reporter's body was inside his Volkswagen Jetta, with Guerrero state license plates.

Two years earlier, in April 2017, journalist Filiberto Álvarez Landeros was shot dead in the municipality of Tlaquiltenango, south of the same entity. Research indicated that the communicator was walking to his private home, after concluding his radio program, where he read poems.

In May 2012, veteran journalist René Orta Salgado, a red note reporter in Sol de Cuernavaca, of the Mexican Editorial Organization (OEM), was found dead inside his vehicle. His relatives had reported him missing four days earlier, after holding a meeting with several men in a bar in the Morelos capital. 

"NO JOURNALIST IS PERSECUTED OR CENSORED": AMLO ON SPOT FOR 3RD REPORT; 47 ARE KILLED IN HIS GOVERNMENT

On August 31, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in a spot published on his Twitter account, that so far in his government no journalist has been persecuted or censored. However, so far in the Administration headed by the Tabasco politician, since December 2018 to date, a total of 46 communicators have been killed.

The Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB) released, on July 13, data from the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which counted the homicides of 43 communicators. But to these are added four more after that date.

Likewise, Article 19, a non-governmental organization that defends freedom of expression and the right to information, denounced that during the first half of this year, 362 attacks occurred against journalists and the media, with which 1,663 attacks have been registered so far in the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (609 in the first year and 692 in the second), which indicates that "violence against the press still shows no sign of reversing itself.

According to the report 'First semester of 2021: violence against the press prevails, as does the inaction of the State', released on August 24, the NGO highlighted that "every 12 hours a person or a half is attacked in Mexico," and that the 362 attacks recorded reveal "a sustained growth in levels of violence."

However, in a video released prior to his Third Government Report, the national president indicated that even now "the president is even insulted but there is no repression" against the press. "There are no more moches because now the budget is going to the people but there are freedoms. The right to disagree, deeds, not words is guaranteed," he said in the spot.

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