NUJ joins IFJ's call for investigation into death of journalist Alejandro Gallegos León in Mexico
Condemnation for killing of columnist and academic
The NUJ is backing the International Federation of Journalists’ call for an investigation into the death of journalist Alejandro Gallegos León in Mexico.
The 51-year-old columnist and academic was found dead on 25 January in the Mexican state of Tabasco having been reported missing and last seen the day before, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Gallegos León was the founder and editor of news website La Voz del Pueblo and was a columnist writing about local politics and educational issues for newspaper TabascoHoy, as well as a professor at the Alfa y Omega University in the city of Villahermosa.
He was found dead from gunshot wounds on the side of a road.
The Attorney General of the State of Tabasco issued a statement, saying: “In light of these events, an investigation was initiated, carrying out all necessary procedures for forensic analysis and evidence collection and interviews, in order to clarify the motive for the disappearance and subsequent location of the lifeless journalist and academic. ”
The National Union of Press Editors (SNRP), said: “The SNRP condemns the murder of journalist Alejandro Gallegos León and demands that local and federal authorities investigate his murder from a human rights perspective without separating his journalistic work as a possible motive for this crime.”
“From the SNRP we condemn that less than 48 hours after his disappearance, local authorities disassociated the murder from his journalistic work. Therefore, we call for all lines of investigation to be exhausted without ruling out Alejandro’s work, since the state prosecutor’s office itself recognizes that he had not had any contact with his family and collaborators.”
“Alejandro’s murder is one more wave of violence faced by journalists in the country. This week, journalist Alan García Zuñiga was deprived of his freedom by an armed group in the state of Veracruz, in the south of the country, with no progress made by the authorities in the investigation so far. Alejandro’s murder occurs a week after the murder of Calletano de Jesús Guerrero in the State of Mexico.”
The NUJ joins the IFJ in, strongly condemning "this crime and reiterates its call to the authorities to redouble their efforts to guarantee the protection of press workers, as well as to investigate the case of Gallegos León under the Standardized Protocol on Crimes against Freedom of Expression and to put an end to the continuity of violence against journalists in the country.”