The Mexican journalist and director of the digital newspaper Villaflores.com., Ariel Grajales, suffered an attack on Wednesday by an armed group that broke into his home in Villaflores, in Chiapas, state of the southern border of Mexico, where he was shot and his health is reported to be serious.

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According to reports from the area confirmed by civil organizations, Grajales suffered the assault at his home around 03:00 local time (09:00 GMT) while he was sleeping and, after being seriously injured by firearms, his family moved him to the Bicentenario hospital in Villaflores.

“In the Esquipulas neighborhood of Villaflores, a group of armed men entered the house of the victim, who was a journalist by profession, injuring him with bullets,” emergency 911 reported.

Hours before he was attacked, the journalist had reported on his social networks about the “right to a flat” (extortion) that organized crime was doing in the region of Frailesca.

The Media Alliance, made up of representatives of Mexican media, issued a statement denouncing this attack on press freedom, which is in addition to the murder of three journalists in the southern state of Chiapas in the last six years.

“We demand that the local and national authorities clarify this case as quickly as possible. It is imperative that the investigations initiated by the Office of the Attorney General (FGE) are conducted with rigor and transparency, to ensure that those responsible for this attack are brought to justice”, denounced the Alliance in the letter.

In 2024, three journalists have already been killed in Mexico: Alejandro Alfredo Martínez Noguez in Guanajuato (center), Roberto Carlos Figueroa in Morelos (center) and Víctor Alfonso Culero Morales in Chiapas.

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