Mexican authorities said Wednesday that three men had been arrested over the murder of journalist Lourdes Maldonado, whose death last month in the northwestern border city of Tijuana sparked international condemnation.
The killing of Maldonado — one of several journalists slain in Mexico already this year — prompted calls for the Mexican government to do more to protect media workers.
The three alleged perpetrators were detained on Tuesday and Wednesday in Tijuana, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez told reporters without identifying them.
The 67-year-old Maldonado, who once asked Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for support as she feared for her life, was shot dead when she arrived home in her car on January 23.
Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejia said the motive was not yet known but would hopefully be established once the suspects are interrogated.
They were arrested with the help of neighbors, who told the authorities that they had seen three men driving around in a taxi in the vicinity of the victim’s home, authorities said.
Maldonado had worked for several outlets, including Primer Sistema de Noticias (PSN), owned by former Baja California state governor Jaime Bonilla Valdez, who has denied being involved in the murder.
She had recently won a lawsuit against PSN, which she had been suing for years over unfair dismissal.
Maldonado had been given police protection but it was withdrawn in November due to the change of state government in Baja California.
She is one of four journalists killed in Mexico so far in 2022, according to media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Days earlier, photographer Margarito Martinez was also shot dead in Tijuana.
Roberto Toledo, a collaborator with a news site in the central state of Michoacan, and Jose Luis Gamboa, a journalist and social media activist in eastern Veracruz state, were also killed in January.
Mexico is considered one of the world’s deadliest countries for reporters with at least seven journalists murdered in 2021, according to RSF, although it is unclear if all the killings were linked to their work.
