Freelance reporter and photographer Margarito Martínez Esquivel was murdered outside his home in the Sánchez Taboada neighborhood, in the city of Tijuana, Baja California.
Sources from the State Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to Animal Politico the identification, which was made by his family.
According to the weekly Zeta, he worked for this media outlet, as well as others in Baja California.
Margarito Martínez, the second journalist killed so far in 2022, was a collaborator with local, national and international media, according to Cadena Noticias, where he worked.
In 2019, The San Diego Union-Tribune highlighted Martínez’s work in coverage of violence, drugs and migration in Tijuana.
Just last January 10, the journalist José Luis Gamboa Arenas, general director of the digital newspaper Inforegio, was murdered in the port of Veracruz.
The state prosecutor, Verónica Hernández Giadáns, pointed out that the murder of communicator José Luis Gamboa Arenas is handled with an investigation protocol for dealing with crimes committed against journalists due to the exercise of their profession.
According to the weekly Zeta, information revealed by witnesses indicates that one of Martínez Esquivel’s neighbors was consuming intoxicating drinks, and the one identified only by the name of Juan was the one who shot Margarito Martínez.
The witnesses, Zeta’s account continues, report that they had a dispute over the ownership of some land, which, according to the authority in the first line of investigation, would be the motive for the murder. The identified suspect, Juan, fled the scene in an unknown direction.
According to the annual Reporters Without Borders report, published in December, Mexico and Afghanistan continue to top the list of countries where it is most dangerous to work as a journalist.
In Mexico, 47 reporters have been murdered in the last five years, says the report.
.
