URGENT ACTION

JOURNALIST AT RISK
Mexican journalist Alberto Amaro reported that officers of the investigative police of the Tlaxcala Attorney General's Office threatened him with a firearm on 4 June. He has denounced several very serious attacks in the last five years due to his work. Despite this, officials from Mexico’s Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists have questioned his claims and even attempted to withdraw Amaro’s protective measures. We urge the Ministry of the Interior to grant protective measures to Alberto that adequately respond to the level of risk he is facing.

TAKE ACTION: WRITE AN APPEAL IN YOUR OWN WORDS OR USE THIS MODEL LETTER

Minister Luisa María Alcalde Luján
Ministry of Interior (SEGOB)  
Postal Address: Carretera Bucareli 99, 
Colonia Juárez, Cuauhtemoc, 
C.P. 06600, Mexico City, Mexico
Email: luisa.alcalde@segob.gob.mx
X: @Segob_mx / @LuisaAlcalde  
Dear Minister,

I’m writing to express my deep concern about the security situation of journalist Alberto Amaro Jordán, director of the Mexican media outlet La Prensa de Tlaxcala. Due to his work, Alberto has been victim of several very serious attacks. 

On the evening of 4 June 2024, Alberto Amaro was traveling with his bodyguards of the federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists to cover an incident in a community in Tlaxcala, a state located in east-central Mexico, when a black vehicle pulled up next to the car in which he was traveling. Then, a person in the car put half his body out of the window and pointed a gun at the journalist´s vehicle. Alberto Amaro and the two federal bodyguards asked him not to shoot. The driver of the black car argued that they were investigative police officers and ordered them to get out of the vehicle. Alberto Amaro began to broadcast the incident on La Prensa de Tlaxcala's Facebook page and called the emergency number. According to the journalist, shortly thereafter, police officers from the Secretariat of Citizen Security of Tlaxcala arrived at the scene and let the investigating police officers leave without taking any further action. Afterwards, Alberto Amaro requested the support of members of the Secretariat of the Navy, who accompanied him to the Attorney General's Office in the city of Tlaxcala.

Over the last year, Alberto Amaro has reported numerous failures in some of the protective measures granted to him by the federal Protection Mechanism. As of the beginning of June, the Mechanism has not fully addressed his concerns about his protection scheme.

I therefore urge you to immediately reassess Alberto Amaro’s security situation in consultation with him, to guarantee that his existing protective measures are not withdrawn and grant any additional measures that are needed to guarantee his safety given the level of risk he faces and to ensure that authorities investigate any attacks against him.

Yours sincerely,

Additional information

Alberto Amaro Jordán is a 35-year-old journalist from the town of Atexcatzingo, in the state of Tlaxcala, east of Mexico City. Since 2019, Amaro has been beaten, threatened and arrested by police officers, intimidated by alleged members of a drug cartel, suffered an attempted break-in, and had shots fired at his house, among other attacks. Police officers and other unidentified individuals have photographed him, and his wife and son, and aggressors have hacked his website and smeared his reputation in Facebook posts accusing him of being a criminal. Despite all this, in August 2023 the Mechanism determined that he was no longer in danger after four years enrolled in the Mechanism and told him it would be withdrawing his four bodyguards. Amaro won an injunction to suspend the removal of his bodyguards but is uncertain if the Mechanism will continue providing protection in the future. He has accused Mechanism officials of ignoring the dangers he and his family continue to face due to his work.
Attacks on journalist Alberto Amaro have not stopped in 2024. On 9 January 2024 around 8:45am he was chased by an unknown person in a vehicle with license plates from the State of Mexico who attempted to crash into Alberto’s vehicle, according to information published by La Prensa de Tlaxcala. The guard of the Protection Mechanism who was driving managed to avoid hitting the other vehicle, but the aggressor pulled in front of them and tried to block their path. Alberto’s driver eventually managed to evade the other vehicle and escape.
Mexico is the Western Hemisphere’s most dangerous country for journalists, according to extensive documentation by CPJ since 1992. Since the turn of the century, at least 153 journalists and other media workers have been killed, according to CPJ research; at least 64 of those killings were found to be directly related to their work. Impunity is the norm in crimes against the press; according to CPJ’s yearly Global Impunity Index, Mexico consistently ranks among the ten countries with the highest number of journalist murders that remain unsolved.

PREFERRED LANGUAGE TO ADDRESS TARGET: Spanish.
You can also write in your own language.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: 8 August 2024
Please check with the Amnesty office in your country if you wish to send appeals after the deadline.

NAME AND PREFFERED PRONOUN: Alberto Amaro Jordán (he/him)

LINK TO PREVIOUS UA: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr41/7702/2024/en/

Additional TARGETS

Tobyanne Ledesma, 
Head Of The Mechanism For The Protection Of Human Rights Defenders And Journalists 
Email: tledesma@segob.gob.mx
Address: 102 Londres Street, number 102, Colonia Juárez, Alcaldía Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06600, Mexico City.

Alejandro Gertz Manero
Email: alejandro.gertz@fgr.org.mx
Address: 20 Insurgentes Avenue, Colonia Roma Norte, Alcaldía Cuauthémoc, c.p. 6700

Ricardo Sánchez Pérez del Pozo
Email: ricardo.sanchezperez@fgr.org.mx
Address: 20 Insurgentes Avenue, Colonia Roma Norte, Alcaldía Cuauthémoc, c.p. 6700

Ms Josefa Gonzalez Blanco Ortiz Mena   
Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary
Embassy of Mexico
16 St. George Street, London, W1S 1FD
Switchboard:  020 7499 8586
E-Mail: mexuk@sre.gob.mx
Web Page: http://www.sre.gob.mx/reinounido
Monday-Friday 09.00-13.00 & 14.00-15.00
Salutation: Your Excellency