Ninth journalist in Mexico murdered this year

• 

According to the Mexican state's attorney general, Sara Quinonez, on Friday, the body of Luis Enrique Ramirez, the creator of the Mexican news portal Fuentes Fidedignas, was discovered on the outskirts of Culiacan in the Mexican western state of Sinaloa.

Quinonez Tweeted that "Unfortunately, it has been confirmed that the body found on a dirt road on El Ranchito highway belongs to journalist Luis Enrique Ramirez Ramos. We express our sincere condolences to his family and pledge to investigate the case."

Ramirez is the ninth journalist to be killed in Mexico in 2022 after Armando Linares in March. 

Before Linares, Juan Carlos Muniz, Heber Lopez, Lourdes Maldonado, Margarito Martinez, Roberto Toledo, Jose Luis Gamboa, and Jorge Luis Camero were also murdered.

Michell Simon, a Mexican television broadcaster and model, was discovered dead in February as well.

According to Reporters without borders, Mexico, which has seen the murder of nearly 150 journalists since 2000, is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.

See this: Danger looms over Mexico's journalists 

 

Last year, Mexico recorded 33,308 murders, marking a 3.6% decrease compared with 2020, in a country long plagued by drug cartel violence and US arms flow into the country.

According to the human rights organization Articulo 19, seven journalists were killed in Mexico in 2021, the highest amount in the world, with 33 journalists slain in the previous three years.

In February, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accused the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of "interfering" after he called for greater accountability over a string of journalist murders.

The public row with US President Joe Biden's administration came after the killing of at least five journalists in 2022, before the number further grew to include four more journalists.

•