Three years ago, Alberto Amaro was sitting at home when he heard two gunshots.
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he → sit → gunshots
His son, playing in the garden, ran inside in terror.
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son → play → terror
When Amaro reached the front gate, he saw two armed men running down his street.
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men → reach → street
Amaro, 38, a journalist in the central Mexican state of Tlaxcala, says he immediately reported the shooting to the federal agency responsible for protecting journalists and requested emergency measures.
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he → say → measures
“More than 48 hours passed without a response,” he says.
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he → pass → response
Amaro eventually turned to a court, which ordered security for his family.
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which → turn → family
What happened to Amaro was one of multiple frightening encounters that exposed shortcomings in Mexico’s federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, a program created in 2012 to safeguard people threatened because of their work.
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that → happen → work
Between 2017 and 2022, eight journalists were killed while enrolled in Mexico’s federal Protection Mechanism, according to a joint investigation by Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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journalists → kill → Journalists
Amaro joined the Mechanism in 2019, shortly after founding his outlet.
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Amaro → join → outlet
Since then, he has lived through more than 30 violent or menacing encounters, including death threats, detention, gunfire and intimidation linked to his reporting on police, government officials and organized crime.
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he → live → police
In 2023, after he reported receiving direct death threats from a mayor, the Mechanism classified Amaro as being at high risk and assigned him bodyguards.
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Mechanism → report → bodyguards
The agency later sought to withdraw his protection despite acknowledging that he remained at high risk.
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he → seek → risk
Amaro went to court and a judge ordered authorities to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment.
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judge → go → assessment
“I worry about what I publish, whether I’ll be killed when I leave home or make it back that day,” says Amaro, who founded the digital news outlet La Prensa de Tlaxcala in 2019.
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who → worry → 2019
“I also have to worry about making sure they don’t take away my protection measures.”
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take → have → measures
A decade fighting for protection and justice
Mexico remains one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists outside of active war zones.
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Mexico → fight → zones
CPJ has documented six journalist killings in the country in 2026, five of them in just over two months.
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CPJ → document → months
Priscila Pacheco, 34, the eldest daughter of journalist Francisco Pacheco, has spent more than a decade fighting for protection since her father was shot dead outside his home in Taxco, in the Mexican state of Guerrero, in 2016.
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father → spend → 2016
An investigative journalist who reported on local government corruption, he founded El Foro de Taxco with his wife, Verónica, in 1998.
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he → report → 1998
“I think the hardest thing for me was having to choose a coffin for my father,” says Priscila, the last person to see him alive.
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Priscila → think → him
After more death threats, Priscila, her mother and two siblings fled days after the murder, abandoning their home and printing press.
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Priscila → flee → home
More than a decade later, they remain displaced and the killing remains unsolved.
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killing → remain → ?
Propuesta Cívica, a Mexican civil society organization that provides legal support to journalists and their families, estimates that 98% of journalist homicides remain unpunished.
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% → provide → homicides
“The deeper structural problem is that the Mechanism has been given a responsibility that belongs to the state as a whole,” says Vanessa Carrillo, Propuesta Cívica’s codirector.
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Carrillo → give → whole
Despite ongoing threats, Priscila said the Mechanism has denied her personal protection because she works as a public employee.
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she → say → employee
She works for the state-level Protection Mechanism in Toluca, in the State of Mexico.
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She → work → Mexico
The security measures provided to her family have been unreliable, she says.
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she → provide → family
Their panic button does not always work, and Priscila has none she can carry herself.
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she → work → none
Security equipment installed at the family’s home, including cameras, locks and lights, is not properly maintained, she says, and police patrols are often skipped or conducted only after a formal written request.
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patrols → instal → request
At annual risk reassessments, Priscila has to repeatedly ask more than 20 officials not to withdraw the limited protection her family still receives.
“It seems they need you to receive a direct threat, or for someone to actually come and do something to you,” she says.
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she → have → you
The family has no plans to return to Taxco while violence persists.
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violence → have → Taxco
“We will never feel safe.
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We → feel → ?
Security is something that has been taken from us,” she says.
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she → take → us
“It has become something utopian for us, because it is the authorities themselves who have failed us.”
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who → become → us
The struggle to keep reporting safely
Jonathan Cuevas, 38, spent three years displaced from his home in Iguala, Guerrero, after threats linked to his reporting on organized crime and local officials.
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Cuevas → keep → crime
In 2020, Mexico’s Protection Mechanism arranged for him to live in a safe house in Mexico City, but the threats continued.
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threats → arrange → City
He was transferred between three safe houses during his displacement.
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He → transfer → displacement
“My return to Iguala wasn’t the result of any government action,” Cuevas says.
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Cuevas → say → action
“It happened simply because the groups agreed to a truce.”
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groups → happen → truce
An agreement between two rival criminal groups fighting for control of the area allowed Cuevas and other displaced journalists to return in 2023.
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Cuevas → fight → 2023
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
