Seventh Mexican Journalist Murdered in 2026 as Columnist Who Named Cartel Ties Is Shot Dead in Oaxaca

Since Roxana Guzmán was abducted in Veracruz on June 2, Mexico has lost a journalist to gun violence roughly every four to five weeks. The killing of Francisco Alejandro Leyva Aguilar on Wednesday, July 22, in the Oaxaca municipality of San Pablo Etla brings the total to seven for 2026, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Leyva was 60. He'd spent three decades in journalism, including a stint as director of the Oaxaca State Radio and Television Corporation before he retired and turned to column-writing full time. Gunmen on a motorcycle shot him while he ate at a taco and quesadilla stand near his home, according to EL PAÍS. His body was found slumped over the table. The attackers got away, though the Oaxaca Attorney General's Office says it has surveillance footage of possible suspects.

Leyva wrote under the byline "El Zumbido del Moscardón" — The Buzz of the Horsefly — and he wasn't subtle about who he was buzzing. He called Oaxaca Governor Salomón Jara, of the ruling Morena party, incompetent and mentally unwell in one of his last public videos, and accused him of having "drug traffickers up to his neck" in the state government, according to EL PAÍS. In one of his final columns, he alleged a land-grab and money-laundering scheme tied to hotel developments, naming Morena officials directly.

"For every voice you silence in the media, Salomón, 10 more will rise," Leyva said in a video that resurfaced after his death, according to EL PAÍS.

Governor Jara acknowledged after the killing that Leyva had been a critic of his administration, "like many other journalists who exercise their right every day to question, point out issues, and freely express" themselves, according to EL PAÍS. No arrest has been announced, and no motive has been officially confirmed.

A Body Count That Keeps Climbing

Different organizations were counting on different days. The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) put out a statement on July 22 calling Leyva the sixth journalist killed this year. RSF and Breitbart both list him as the seventh. The discrepancy comes down to timing and which killings each group had already logged, not a dispute over the facts on the ground. Multiple journalists are dead in under seven months in a country that hasn't stopped this pattern in years.

The killings preceding Leyva's, per the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ): Luis Ángel López in Veracruz on June 11, Roxana Guzmán, abducted in Veracruz on June 2 with remains identified July 3, Alex Serna, abducted in Guerrero on June 20 with remains found July 3, and Josué Martínez Contreras, shot dead near his home in San Martín Texmelucan, Puebla, on Thursday, July 16, in front of his 13-year-old son.

Martínez ran a Facebook news page and had posted a video in November 2025 accusing local officials of illegally extracting drinking water and overcharging residents, saying he'd received threats over it, according to CPJ. He didn't name who threatened him. No suspects have been publicly identified in his killing either.

What Press Groups Are Demanding

RSF's Latin America director, Artur Romeu, called it a serious and sustained failure on the part of the Mexican state. "Seven journalists murdered in little more than six months stand as evidence of a serious and sustained failure on the part of the Mexican state," Romeu said, according to Breitbart. He noted some victims had reported threats beforehand or were even under formal protection programs. "Launching an investigation after each murder has failed to protect lives or put an end to the violence, and it can no longer remain the sole response," he said, calling for the government to accept political responsibility and present a national emergency plan.

CPJ's Mexico representative, Jan-Albert Hootsen, made a similar point after Martínez's death: "Time and time again Mexican authorities show their unwillingness to make the country safer for reporters by allowing these attacks to occur in almost complete impunity."

IAPA president Pierre Manigault and press freedom committee chair Martha Ramos both issued statements this week urging swift, transparent investigations and calling the pattern a symptom of a broader security and impunity crisis, not isolated incidents.

RSF ranks Mexico 160th out of 180 countries for press safety and 122nd for press freedom overall.

None of these organizations claim to know who ordered Leyva's killing, and no official has been charged in any of the seven murders this year. Mexican officials, including Governor Jara, have condemned the violence in public statements. Press groups continue asking whether any of these seven cases will end in a conviction, or whether they'll join the long list of unsolved journalist killings that RSF says defines Mexico's press freedom record.