Six weeks ago, journalist Armando Linares choked up in a video announcing the killing of a colleague and promised to continue doing journalism that exposed the corrupt. Now Linares too has been gunned down — the eighth journalist killed in Mexico this year.
On Wednesday, his wife, children, siblings and friends prepared to see him off inside a small funeral parlor.
After initially halting his reporting for a few weeks and closing the Monitor Michoacan office following the killing of camera operator Roberto Toledo, Linares returned to reporting and resumed publishing the online news site.
He wrote stories about the monarch butterflies that winter in the mountains around Zitacuaro, butterfly-related festivities and other hyper-local and state news — but gone was the criticism of local officials he was known for before Toledo’s killing.
Still, the threat for journalists had persisted, something Linares seemed to expect.
On Jan. 31, the day Toledo was killed, Linares looked straight at the camera and said, “There are names. We know where all of this comes from.”
“The Monitor Michoacan team has been suffering a series of death threats,” he said. “Exposing the corruption of corrupt governments, corrupt officials and politicians today has led to the death of one of our friends.”
Linares told The Associated Press shortly afterward that he had continued receiving threats, enrolled in the federal government’s protection program for journalists and was receiving protection from the National Guard.
On Tuesday evening, Linares was shot and killed at his Zitacuaro home. His body was found in the doorway with gunshots to the chest, according to the state prosecutor’s office. Authorities recovered 9mm shell casings at the scene. Authorities have not provided a suspected motive.
