Image taken from Democracy Now

By Guillermo Alvarado

The murder a few days ago of Roberto Toledo, the fourth Mexican communicator executed so far this year, highlights all the difficulties that persist today in transforming a country long dominated by violence and unchecked corruption.

Killing those who dare to speak the truth has been recurrent in the brother Latin American country and is by no means a new practice, as evidenced by the fatal attempt on the life of the prominent columnist Manuel Buendía in 1984 for his investigations into the mismanagement of certain officials.

Buendía, by the way, was also a target of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, because in his column Red Privada, which was published in the newspaper Excélsior, he unmasked several agents and operating houses of that espionage organization.

The truth is that the list of journalists killed in the exercise of their profession is already very long and in the few years of the mandate of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, AMLO by his initials, it has not been possible to contain this evil and many cases remain in impunity.

A total of 42 communicators perished in the last five years in that nation according to various reports and 2022 could not start in a worse way.

In addition to Toledo, who collaborated with the Monitor media of the city of Zitácuaro, Michoacán state, in January Margarito Martínez and Lourdes Maldonado were executed in Tijuana, near the border with the United States, and José Luis Gamboa Arenas, in Veracruz.

In all cases the common denominator was the publication of denunciations and evidence of corruption by local officials.

The death of Lourdes Maldonado caused great consternation because since 2019 she had denounced to López Obrador that her life was in danger, so she was included in a special protection program, which did not prevent a lone assassin from executing her in broad daylight.

This type of violence increased in Mexico since former President Felipe Calderon -2006 to 2012- gave in to Washington's pressures and declared war on drug trafficking, which is one of the main corrupters in our region due to its enormous financial power.

In this unique conflict, the United States provided the weapons of the two opposing sides and Mexico provided the territory and the direct and collateral deaths.

It is not an easy task and no one can expect that with the stroke of a pen, or by decree, the serious problems accumulated over decades will be solved, so it is time to support the efforts being made to erase corruption and the violence it brings with it from the map.