Ninth Journalist Killed in Mexico in 2022 as Reporter is Kidnapped, Beaten to Death and Wrapped in Plastic
Yet another journalist has been murdered in Mexico, as reporting in the country has proved fatal for nine reporters in just four full months of 2022.
Luis Enrique Ramírez, a 59-year-old a columnist for the newspaper El Debate was found Thursday dead along a Culiacán roadside in western Mexico, his family told the outlet Revista ESPEJO:
This Thursday morning he was found dead south of Culiacán, a few meters from the International Highway Mexico 15 to the south and next to the gap that leads to the Antorchista neighborhood and Las Nanchiz Campestre.
CBS News reported Ramírez was found wrapped in black plastic. He died after he was repeatedly struck in the head, according to the report. Authorities said he had been kidnapped.
It is not clear why Ramírez was targeted, or who killed him. Reuters reported the journalist expressed he might be in danger several years ago while speaking with an unnamed Mexican news outlet.
“I do feel the imminent danger that I am the one who follows, because there is a pattern [of murders], in which I fit,” Ramirez stated, per the wire service.
Eight other reporters murdered by criminal gangs and drug cartels have included men and women, who were both young and old. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed to protect members of the media before he was elected in 2018.
Thus far, such killings have only escalated under his watch.
Guardian reported one-sixth of all journalists murdered globally in 2020 died in Mexico. The country is more dangerous for reporters than Afghanistan.
Revista ESPEJO wrote of Ramírez:
Luis Enrique Ramírez was born in Culiacán in 1963. He began journalism in 1980 after studying at the Sinaloa School of Social Communication and worked in local newspapers, such as El Debate and Noroeste, as well as founding the Fuentes Fidedignas news site.
He received various awards, including the Pablo de Villavicencio Award from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (twice), the Journalism Award from the Sinaloa Cultural Festival and the José Pagés Llergo National Award for Youth Journalism from CREA.
