One of Mexico’s most prominent news anchors has survived an apparent assassination attempt near his home in the capital, in one of the most brazen attacks against a journalist the country has seen in recent decades.
Ciro Gómez Leyva, a news anchor for the national news network, Grupo Imagen, was driving a bulletproof SUV when the pillion rider on a motorcycle opened fire on him late on Thursday.
Gómez was unharmed, but the attack highlighted the dramatic escalation in violence against Mexican journalists under the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known as Amlo.
Forty-two journalists were killed during the first three years of Amlo’s term as president, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That compared to forty-five journalists killed in the entire six-year term of the last president, Enrique Peña Nieto.
López Obrador has repeatedly lambasted journalists critical of his administration, and violence against journalists has increased by 85% since he took office, according to the press freedom organization, Article 19. Earlier this year, the director of the non-profit received a death threat the same day he presented a report on the increasing dangers faced by journalists in the country.
On Wednesday, Amlo singled out Gómez for criticism during a regular section of his daily news conference dedicated to what the president calls the media’s “lies of the week”.
At Friday’s press conference, the president denounced the attack on Gómez. “He’s a journalist, a human being, but he’s also a leader of public opinion. Hurting a figure like Ciro creates a lot of political instability,” Amlo said.
Mexico City was once considered safer than many regions of the country for journalists. But that is changing.
“It’s extremely worrying that such a thing can happen in Mexico City,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, the Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, of the assassination attempt. “It also speaks volumes of the brazenness of some of these people, that they are willing to go this far attacking a person with such a high profile in the media.”
The danger for journalists based in the city has increased in recent years. Rubén Espinoza, a photographer for Proceso Magazine, fled the state of Veracruz for Mexico City after receiving death threats while covering corruption allegations against then-governor Javier Duarte. He was shot dead in his apartment in 2015, along with four other people.
Just last year, the leader of the hyper-violent New Generation Jalisco Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” threatened to kill Azucena Uresti, an anchor for the Milenio TV network, who also lives in the capital.
And government officials have not been spared the violence here.
In 2020, the city’s police chief survived an attack in one of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods by gunmen wielding armor-piercing .50 caliber machine guns.