PEN International is shocked to learn that yet another journalist has been killed in Mexico. Tijuana Informativo Director Ramón Abel López Aguilar was kidnapped in Tijuana, Baja California on October 14, 2012, and shot in the head. PEN calls for a thorough investigation into his murder and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Background Information

Ramón Abel López Aguilar (53), director of the web site Tijuana Informativo and a photojournalist, was abducted by an armed group from his home in Tijuana, Baja California, on October 14, 2012. His body was found on a street in Tijuana the next morning; he died of a single gun shot to the head, according to the state attorney general’s office. The state authorities are reportedly investigating the murder, including the possibility that the shooting was related to his journalistic work.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to be a writer or journalist. Since 2000, over 80 writers, journalists, and bloggers have been murdered and another 15 have disappeared. Most of these crimes have not been properly investigated and there have been only a handful of convictions.

The rate at which journalists are being killed has accelerated rapidly: since January 2012, nine print journalists and writers have been murdered in Mexico.

These include: investigative reporter Regina Martínez, journalist Marco Antonio Ávila García, poet and translator Guillermo Fernández García, journalist Raúl Régulo Garza Quirino, and ex-reporter René Orta Salgado.

On June 8, a journalist for the Coahuila-based newspaper Zócalo Saltillo, Stephanía Cardoso, disappeared with her two-year-old son.

On June 12, 2012, PEN International wrote an open letter to all journalists covering the G20 Summit in Mexico on June 18-19. We asked them—in the course of their coverage of the event—to raise the issue of the attacks on journalists and writers, and the impunity enjoyed by those who commit these crimes.

PEN International is currently running Write Against Impunity 2012, a literary campaign to protest the attacks on writers and journalists in Mexico, Honduras, and Brazil, and the state of impunity that exists for those who commit these crimes.

Write A Letter

  • Calling for a full and impartial investigation into the death of editor and photojournalist Ramón Abel López Aguilar;
  • Urging the Attorney General of the Republic to take up the case;
  • Urging the Mexican authorities to do more to tackle the widespread local state corruption that slows and often prevents proper, objective investigations into the murders of writers and journalists.

Send Your Letter To

President
Lic. Felipe De Jesús Calderón Hinojosa
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Alemán
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850 DISTRITO FEDERAL, México
Fax: (+ 52 55) 5093 4901/ 5277 2376
Email: [email protected]
Salutation: Señor Presidente/Dear Mr President

Attorney General of the Repubilc
Lic. Marisela Morales Ibáñez
Procuradora General de la República
Av. Paseo de Reforma No. 211-213, Piso 16
Col. Cuauhtémoc, Defegacion Cuauhtémoc
México D.F. C.P. 06500
Tel: + 52 55 5346 0108
Fax: + 52 55 53 46 0908 (if a voice answers, ask "tono de fax, por favor")
Email: [email protected]
Salutation: Señora Procuradora General/Dear Attorney General

State Attorney General
Lic. Rommel Moreno Manjarrez
Procurador General de Justicia del Estado
Calzada de los Presidentes No. 1199
Fracc. Río Nuevo, C. P. 21390
Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico
Tel: + 52 686 904 4122/ 4100
Fax: + 52 686 555 4031
Email: [email protected]

Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression
Lic. Laura Angelina Borbolla
Fiscal Especial para la Atención de Delitos Cometidos contra Periodistas (FEADP)
Email: [email protected]

Please copy appeals to the diplomatic representative for Mexico in your country if possible.

Please send appeals immediately. Contact PEN if sending appeals after December 16, 2012: ftw [at] pen.org