Another Mexican journalist was shot and killed in southern Mexico on Thursday, authorities said. Heber Lopez's death is the latest in a string of journalist killings that prompted U.S. lawmakers to pressure Mexico to strengthen protections.

Lopez, director of the news site NoticiasWeb, was killed while leaving a recording studio in the port city of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca state, The Guardian reported.

Oaxaca state prosecutor Arturo Peimbert Calvo told Milenio that two suspects were arrested in relation to the killing and that the investigation was still ongoing.

Lopez is the fifth journalist killed in the country this year. His murder follows those of four journalists last month.

Lopez often reports about politics and corruption in local government, and he had received death threats in 2019, the director of RCP Noticias, Rodolfo Canseco, told Reuters.

According to the human rights organization Article 19, around 145 journalists were slain in Mexico from 2000 to 2021, making it one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists.

In a tweet, Article 19 called on Mexico's federal program to protect journalists to "contact [Lopez's] family members, colleagues and friends as soon as possible, in order to provide the necessary protection measures."

Deaths of Other Mexican Journalists

The fourth Mexican journalist, who was killed in Mexico this year, was Roberto Toledo. Three gunmen killed Toledo in a carpark at Zitacuaro City in the state of Michoacán on January 31. Toledo was a journalist at the local news website Monitor Michoacán.

Armando Linares, director of the Monitor Michoacán, posted a video on YouTube, wherein he expressed his apologies to the slain journalist's family.

Linares said exposing governmental corruption had caused the death of one of their colleagues. He noted that the Monitor Michoacan team had "suffered weeks, months of death threats" for exposing corrupt administrations and corrupt officials and politicians.

A Tijuana photojournalist was also shot dead outside his home on January 17 as he left for work. Margarito Martinez Esquivel also worked as a journalist assisting international outlets, including the BBC. His 16-year-old daughter heard gunshots and found her father's body by his car, according to San Diego Union-Tribune.

Martinez has filed an official complaint about the threats he had received through Facebook that referred to his work as a journalist. The threats were made a month ago before he was killed.

On January 23, Mexican journalist Lourdes Maldonado Lopez, who covered politics and corruption, was shot dead as she arrived at her home in Tijuana. Her colleagues said one of the windows of her vehicle was already covered in plastic as it had been shattered previously by gunfire.

On January 10, Jose Luis Gamboa's body was found in the Floresta neighborhood in Veracruz. Gamboa had been stabbed at least seven times.

Gamboa founded and edited the Inforegio news website. He also co-founded and edited the news website La Noticia while publishing news on his personal Facebook page.

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U.S. Senators Urge Mexico to Protect Journalists

Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia and Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, published an open letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking him to "urge the Mexican government to seriously improve efforts to protect journalists, NBC News reported.

Since Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador took office in December 2018, more than 50 journalists have been killed.

The two prominent U.S. senators asked the State Department to report on what it is doing to help improve safety for Mexican journalists and to ensure that there is transparency and accountability for the recent murders of journalists.

Lopez Obrador's habit of "consistently disparaging journalists for daring to criticize his administration" was also criticized by Kaine and Rubio, who said the Mexican president's news briefings include almost daily tirades against journalists he considers either sold out or "conservatives."

The senators noted that the crisis of freedom of expression in Mexico should be addressed. 

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

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