Alfredo David Páramo González, 20, and his brother Diego Alejandro, 21, were shot dead on Saturday in the northern Mexican city of Chihuahua after being pursued by gunmen. The brothers are the sons of two prominent Mexican journalists: David Páramo, a financial journalist who hosts a radio show and writes a newspaper column with national distribution; and his wife Martha González Nicholson, who edits the Chihuahua newspaper El Peso. El Universal reported that authorities said that for the moment there is no evidence linking the murder to the profession of the brothers' parents. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based advocacy group, 28 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 1992. Other sources put the figure much higher than that, including Mexico's special prosecutor for crimes against journalists, who says 67 have been killed and 14 disappeared since 2006, when former Mexican president Felipe Calderon launched a military campaign against drug cartels in the country.
A spokesman for the public prosecutors' office, Carlos González, said in an interview that the brothers died after being shot by a .9 millimeter weapon.
"They arrived home shortly before 4 a.m. on Saturday morning, after which one of them, Diego, mentioned to his mother that he had to go out again, we aren't sure why, they left the house, and a few minutes later is when they were followed and killed," said González.
El Universal reported that journalist Lydia Cacho had written a Twitter post stating that Martha González Nicholson, mother of the boys, had previously received threats while at work. Investigators did not indicate whether this would be looked into as part of the investigation.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto ordered the national prosecutors' office to assist in the investigation together with Chihuahua authorities. On Twitter, he also offered his condolences to the journalists for the "irreparable loss of their loss". Since Peña Nieto entered office on December 1st, more than 36 cases of aggression against journalists or media outlets have been registered, according to the organization Freedom House.
Article 19, an organization defending freedom of the press, released a statement asking the prosecutors' office of Chihuahua to carry out an "impartial investigation" into the death of the brothers "in which the journalistic work of the parents of the victims be incorporated into the line of investigation". The organization criticized the office for stating that the murder had nothing to do with the profession of the victims' parents "without proof".
In early March, journalist Jaime Guadalupe González Domínguez, editor of the news website Ojinaganoticas.com, was shot to death in Chihuahua. In March of 2011, the son of Javier Sicilia, the poet and journalist, was killed in Morelos. Afterward, Sicilia launched the "Movimiento por la Paz" - the Campaign for Peace - to call for an end to then-president Calderon's strategy of targeting the kingpins and heads of drug cartels, which has sparked a wave of violence. Approximately 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2006, when Calderon's campaign began.
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