Mexico City, July 17, 2026—Mexican authorities must swiftly and credibly investigate the killing of 39-year-old Josué Martínez Contreras, who is the fourth Mexican journalist to be killed in the country in just over a month, said the Committee to Protect Journalists on Friday.
Martínez, the founder and general director of the Facebook-based news site
Noticias San Martín Texmelucan
, was shot dead near his residence around 8 a.m. on Thursday by unidentified motorcyclists in the town of San Martín Texmelucan, in the central Mexican state of Puebla, according to
news
reports
and
a brief statement
released by the Puebla state prosecutor’s office. Reports noted that the office is investigating Martínez’s killing and that the journalist was with his 13-year-old son during the attack.
“The brutal killing of Josué Martínez, in front of his child and in broad daylight, is the fourth such deadly attack on a Mexican journalist in just over four weeks in what is rapidly becoming one of the deadliest years in recent memory for the Mexican press,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative. “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.”
Martínez’s killing follows the deaths of Mexican journalists Luis Ángel López,
killed in Veracruz state on June 11
, Roxana Guzmán,
abducted June 2 in Veracruz
and
whose remains were identified
on July 3, and
Alex Serna
, who was abducted in Guerrero state on June 20 and whose remains were found on July 3.
Martínez covered local news in Texmelucan, a town 45 miles east of Mexico City. He was also the founder of
CRE-ARTE
, an artistic and charitable foundation, had recently obtained a law degree and worked as a Physical Education teacher at a local public school.
On November 20, 2025, Martínez
posted a short video on his personal Facebook page
, in which he alleged that local government offic
