Mexico - September 2026

The safety of journalists in Mexico has once again been thrown into the spotlight, with the murder of five journalists in under two months between early June and mid-July. The fact that many of those killed had reported receiving threats but did not receive sufficient protection has led to further calls for the government led by President Claudia Sheinbaum to improve protection mechanisms for journalists.

One of the most eye-catching recent cases is that of Francisco Alejandro Leyva Aguilar, a veteran journalist and columnist, who was killed in the state of Oaxaca by an unidentified gunman on 22 July. Leyva was best known for directing the Corporación Oaxaqueña de Radio y Televisión (CORTV), a Oaxaca state government agency responsible for radio and television networks, from 2016 to 2020 and for writing the online political column ‘El Zumbido del Moscardón’. His murder was the seventh of a Mexican journalist so far this year, according to international press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which recorded nine journalist murders in Mexico for the whole of 2025.

Just over a year before his death, Leyva had filed a complaint with Oaxaca’s human rights ombudsman’s office for reported death threats. He linked these threats to critiques his work had received during the official press conferences of the state governor, Salomón Jara, who is affiliated with the federally ruling Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena).

The political opposition was quick to denounce Leyva’s murder as evidence of the links between Morena and drug cartels, saying Leyva was killed for trying to reveal this alleged collusion. The leader of the centrist opposition Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), Alejandro Moreno, wrote on social media that Leyva’s “murder reveals a state subjugated by violence, where journalists live under threat and authorities allow impunity to continue shielding criminals”.

Press freedom groups also raised the alarm about the fact that Leyva was killed despite having denounced threats. In a 23 July social post, the Mexican branch of global human rights NGO Amnesty International stated that: “It is particularly concerning that the Oaxaca state human rights commission, the federal attorney general’s office, and the Oaxaca state attorney general’s office were aware of the threats Francisco was facing. Yet, they failed to prevent his murder.” Given that other journalists murdered in recent months had also denounced threats, Sheinbaum’s government is likely to come under