Fourth Mexican journalist slain in less than a month

Mexican journalist Roberto Toledo was shot dead by three gunmen, becoming the fourth journalist to be slain in the country in less than a month, The Guardian reported. 

Toledo was shot dead by suspects in a parking lot area in the city of Zitácuaro on Monday afternoon. 

Toledo was a journalist for local news outlet Monitor Michoacán, according to The Guardian. 

In a social media post, Monitor Michoacán’s director, Armando Linares, expressed his condolences to Toledo’s family, saying that “exposing corruption led to the death of one of our colleagues,” according to The Guardian.

“[Toledo] lost his life at the hands of three people who shot him in a mean and cowardly manner,” Linares said. “We don’t carry weapons. We only have a pen and a notebook to defend ourselves.”

Journalists have accused Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of failing to protect them and their colleagues, The Guardian reported, with the president in turn blaming “neoliberalism.”

Toledo’s death follows the deaths of José Luis Gambo, Margarito Martínez and Lourdes Maldonado López, who were killed earlier this month, The Guardian noted.

Mexico has become known as one of the most dangerous places for journalists to work.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said it counts 32 members of the media murdered since Obrador took office in December 2018, not counting Toledo’s case, according to The Guardian. Those in particular danger are local reporters looking into links between politics and organized crime.