MEXICO CITY (CN) — President Claudia Sheinbaum and press advocates on Friday denounced an attack on Mexico’s El Debate newspaper late Thursday night in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
“I obviously condemn the act and investigations are being carried out. If they request [special security measures], of course we will be in contact with them,” Sheinbaum said during her Friday morning briefing.
The building was shot at around 11:30 p.m. Thursday when armed civilians in two vehicles fired on the building and three unoccupied newspaper delivery vehicles parked outside. No one was injured in the attack.
The attack was part of a violent night in Culiacán. Multiple vehicles were set on fire and used to block main avenues throughout the city and other shootings were also reported.
Sinaloa has seen an increase in violence since the arrests of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López — two important figures within the Sinaloa Cartel — in the U.S. on July 25.
Additionally, Genaro García Luna, the country’s former secretary of public security, was sentenced in the U.S. on Wednesday to a little over 38 years in prison for taking millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.
The violence in the city occurred days after 150 troops entered Sinaloa as part of a special security initiative in response to the increased violence in the area since September that has left 190 people dead.
These troops joined the 1,200 already stationed in Sinaloa sent by Mexico’s Secretary of Public Security Omar García Harfuch, whose security plan relies heavily on military and National Guard presence in the state.
Alianza de Medios Mx, a civil organization that advocates for press freedom within Mexico, also condemned the attacks in a statement Friday.
“We urgently call for the strengthening of security and protection measures for the media and its workers, who face risks in the performance of their work. Violence against the press is a threat to democracy and freedom of expression,” the organization said.
Mexican journalists are attacked at an alarmingly high rate. In 2022, 11 journalists were murdered in Mexico and four have been killed this year.
Sinaloa Secretary of Public Security Gerardo Mérida Sánchez said Thursday night after visiting the location that he could not confirm it was a direct attack on the press building as there were also bullet impacts on the neighboring building.
Sheinbaum’s administration — which just began in October — has been tested early with several violent incidents, including the gruesome murder of the governor of Chilpancingo and a military attack on a migrant caravan that left six dead.
Two high-profile shootings also occurred in Mexico City on Thursday afternoon. Oralia Pérez Garduño, a criminal lawyer who specialized in femicide prosecutions, was shot dead by men who fled on a motorcycle in the Roma Sur neighborhood.
On the same afternoon in a separate event, Diana Sánchez Barrios — an alternate deputy in Mexico’s Congress, a street vendor organizer and LGBTQ+ activist — was shot in the historic downtown neighborhood. She is in serious condition, but a person she was with during the shooting died.
Sánchez Barrios was arrested in 2021 for extortion. Her mother, also a leader of the Mexico City street vendors, blamed La Unión Tepito, a criminal organization, for the attack, saying it has threatened them for years.