Journalists demand justice for the murder of Armando Linares

 

Morelia, March 16.- A group of communicators and journalists, led by human rights groups, marched this morning from the Las Tarascas fountain to the Government Palace to demand justice for the murder of Armando Linares López, director of the Monitor Michoacán website.

On January 31, Roberto Toledo, an assistant to Linares López , was shot and killed at the entrance to the Monitor Michoacán offices  . So far this year, eight journalists have been killed.

The groups "Not One More" and "Journalism at Risk" called on the federal and state governments to support the families of murdered or missing journalists and to pay attention to journalists who have received threats. They also called for a thorough investigation into the murder of Linares López .

Journalists murdered in Michoacán

At least 20 journalists and media workers have been murdered in Michoacán in the last two decades. Organized crime is presumed to have been involved in most of the murders and disappearances.

José Antonio García Apac, of the weekly  Ecos de la Cuenca de Tepalcatepec , disappeared in January 2006. Two years later, Mauricio Estrada, a photojournalist for  La Opinión de Apatzingán , suffered the same fate. On November 11, 2009, María Esther Aguilar, a correspondent for the Michoacán newspaper  Cambio , was abducted in Zamora ; while in April 2010, Ramón Ángeles Zalpa, a correspondent for  Cambio de Michoacán  in the Purépecha Plateau region, disappeared.

Jaime Arturo Olvera Bravo, former correspondent for  La Voz de Michoacán in La Piedad, was shot dead in March 2006; in April 2010, Enrique Villicaña Palomares , former director of the Michoacán Radio and Television System and columnist for  La Voz de Michoacán , was killed with a knife .