New York, March 23, 2017–Miroslava Breach Velducea, a correspondent for the national newspaper La Jornada from the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, was murdered this morning in the eponymous state capital.
Breach, 54, was shot eight times by a gunman as she was leaving home in her car, accompanied by one of her three children, shortly after 7 a.m., according to press reports. The child was not injured, but Breach died while being transported to the hospital. Breach covered, among other subjects, politics and crime. Breach was the third journalist to be killed in Mexico this month. CPJ has determined that Cecilio Pineda Birto was murdered for his journalism, and is investigating the motive for the killing of Ricardo Monlui Cabrera.
“We are shocked by the brutal killing of Miroslava Breach,” said Carlos Lauría, CPJ’s senior program coordinator for the Americas. “This wave of violence threatens citizens’ right to access vital information, and harms Mexico’s democracy by limiting public debate. We urge the Mexican federal government to put an end to this violence by bringing the perpetrators of this crime to justice.”
Nahum Pedro Zárate, deputy general director of the federal Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) told CPJ that a federal investigation has been opened.