Miami (February 11, 2025) - Eleven years after the murder of Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz in Mexico, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) remembers, through its campaign " Voices Claiming Justice," that impunity in crimes against journalists can lead to self-censorship, affects society's right to receive information, and jeopardizes freedom of expression.
Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz, Goyo, was kidnapped around seven in the morning on February 5, 2014, after dropping two of his children off at school, according to IAPA records.
Five armed and hooded men broke into his house in the Villa Allende community, in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz State. "He's the photographer," one of the individuals said, according to press reports. They put a knife to his abdomen and a gun to his head; "his other two daughters were also threatened," the journalist did not resist, "they handcuffed him and forcefully took him to a van," according to testimonies published in the report "Gregorio: murdered for reporting," by the Observation Mission of a group of 16 journalists and four national and international organizations defending freedom of expression, including the IAPA. The organization documented the case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juTO_LErKdo (video cpj)
On February 11 of that year, his decapitated body, showing signs of torture, was found in a clandestine grave in the municipality of Las Choapas in the southern part of the state, alongside the corpses of union leader Ernesto Ruiz Guillén and a taxi driver. It was also reported that his tongue had been cut out, according to an article published in Gatopardo.
Jiménez de la Cruz, a self-taught journalist, covered police news and was a photographer for the newspapers Notisur and Liberal del Sur in Veracruz, the deadliest state for journalism in Mexico. Between 2010 and 2016, 17 journalists were killed in Veracruz and three others remain missing, according to press freedom organizations' reports.
Some of his articles were signed under the pseudonym "el Pantera," ( the Panther) while others were published anonymously, among other reasons, to protect his safety. Jiménez de la Cruz's kidnapping and murder mobilized his colleagues nationwide, in Coatzacoalcos, and press organizations to demand justice. At the time of his death, he was 43 years old, had four children with his partner Carmela Hernández, and three others from a previous relationship.
Jiménez de la Cruz's case, which highlighted "serious deficiencies" in the official investigation process, was taken over at the federal level by the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE by its acronym in Spanish), due to evidence linking the crime to his journalistic work. Initially, the state government claimed it was a personal vendetta unrelated to journalism.
Nine years after the homicide, on August 5, 2023, the Attorney General of the Republic accused and issued an arrest warrant against José Luis Cházaro Ramírez, for his probable involvement as a co-author in the crimes of aggravated kidnapping and murder of the journalist.
Five other individuals had been previously arrested for the murder, including Teresa Hernández Cruz, owner of El Palmar bar, with whom the journalist had reportedly had a dispute months before his murder over a published article. José Luis Márquez, "el Pony," leader of a criminal cell, who allegedly had been hired by Hernández Cruz to carry out the murder, was also arrested, according to press reports.
As of September 2024, no trial date had been set for any of the suspects, nor had any convictions been handed down, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The case remains unresolved.
The second vice president of IAPA and president of the Commission on Press Freedom and Information, Carlos Jornet, stated that "the lack of resolution in cases of crimes against journalists is one of the biggest and most complex challenges faced by justice in countries where these crimes occur regularly, with systems as overburdened as they are dysfunctional. It is imperative to break the cycle of impunity surrounding these cases, which stifles the free flow of information in society and harms the health of democracy."
IAPA's campaign "Voices Claiming Justice" aims to highlight and keep alive the memory of journalists murdered in the Americas, to remember their journalistic work, and to continue urging authorities to end the impunity that surrounds most of these crimes, by seeking justice.
The IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications from the western hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.
