Twelve years: No justice for Mexican journalist Regina Martínez

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April 28 marks 12 years since Mexican investigative journalist Regina Martínez Pérez was beaten and strangled to death in her home. Authorities have failed to credibly solve the murder. The IPI global network calls for justice. President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador must honor his commitment to reopen the case and end impunity.

Martínez was a widely respected journalist based in Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz state. A correspondent for the national magazine Proceso, she carried out uncompromising investigations into human rights issues, organized crime, and links between cartel members and state officials.

Serious investigative failures have marred the effort to secure justice for her murder. Following the murder, authorities arrested and tortured a suspect into what observers believe was a false confession. Meanwhile, police failed to identify a set of fingerprints at the murder scene.

Martínez’s case is emblematic of Mexico’s journalist safety crisis. Mexico is the most dangerous country for journalists in the Western Hemisphere and Veracruz one of the deadliest states. At least 164 journalists have been killed in Mexico since IPI records began in 1997. There is virtual total impunity for these killings. 

“The continued impunity for the murder of Regina Martínez is emblematic of Mexico’s horrific journalist safety crisis”, IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen said. “The unacceptable lack of justice 12 years later is a massive state failure and puts journalists across the country at risk.”

He added: “We urgently call on President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador to make good on his commitment to reopen the murder case. Authorities must carry out a transparent and credible investigation that brings all those responsible to justice.”

Regina’s story

In her final years, Martínez wrote frequently about two Veracruz state governors, Fidel Herrera and Javier Duarte, and their ties to the underworld. Both maintained contact with cartels and played a significant role in transforming the state into a hotbed of unprecedented violence. Reliable sources estimate that 25,000 people disappeared in Veracruz during the two governors’ back-to-back terms. Meanwhile, Veracruz officials claimed 5,000 had gone missing.

In April 2012, Martínez was working on an extensive report on mass graves she believed cartels and other criminals were using to dump bodies. The suspected victims included petty criminals, business owners unwilling to defer to illegal enterprises, as well as vulnerable women. Martínez visited some of the graves and kept count of the bodies that were fast piling up. On the side, she published crime news at a steady stream. She wrote about migration, discrimination against indigenous communities, and the arrest of cartel leaders and police who collaborated with cartels.

Before her death, Martínez believed she was under surveillance. According to a former colleague, Martínez heard frequent noises and echoes from her phone. Growing safety concerns prompted her to tell her boss about plans to stop covering stories on organized crime. When she returned to Xalapa from holiday in December 2011, she noticed that someone had been in her apartment. However, due to her distrust in authorities, she did not report it.

On April 28, 2012, she was found dead in her bathroom. Her neighbour had noticed her door was open and called the police. Her story on mass graves was never published – Martínez’s killers took her laptop when they fled the crime scene. Javier Duarte, governor of Veracruz at the time of Martínez’s murder, has denied having anything to do with the murder. 

Flawed investigation

In 2013, a judge sentenced Jorge Antonio Hernández Silva, also known as “El Silva”, to 38 years in prison for Martínez’s murder. Veracruz authorities claimed there was no connection between the murder and Martínez’s work as a journalist. Instead, they said it had been a “crime of passion”, committed in connection with a burglary. However, El Silva later took back his earlier admission of guilt, claiming that state officials had threatened and tortured him into pleading guilty. Nevertheless, he remains behind bars.

Rights activists have accused authorities of mishandling the case. The story about a “crime of passion” appeared contrived. A Mexican prosecutor who visited Martínez’s place shortly after her murder found no signs of burglary. The murderers took Martínez’s phone and work computer but left other valuables.

Prototype of impunity

In 2020, the news outlet Forbidden Stories published “The Cartel Project” on Martínez and Mexico’s war on the press. After interviewing former state officials, prosecutors and the journalist’s inner circle and colleagues, the project revealed that Veracruz authorities had been spying on journalists and political opponents with the Pegasus spyware. It reported that journalists looking into certain topics, such as mass graves or Martínez’s death, faced threats or even murder plots. The harassment forced many journalists to discontinue their investigations and relocate to a safer environment.

Meanwhile, Martínez’s murder remains unsolved. Mexico’s Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists estimates that public officials committed nearly half (43 percent) of the attacks on journalists between 2012 and 2023. Non-state actors, including organized crime, committed one-third. Most of these attacks have gone fully or partially unpunished. Martínez’s case sadly fits the “prototype” of impunity for the killing of journalists in Mexico. Visibility is one aspect that sets her case apart.

In November 2020, Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador vowed to reopen the criminal investigation into Martínez’s murder. He has not followed through.