On October 24, at 8 o’clock in the evening, Gabriel Soriano Kuri, announcer and worker of the state news system Guerrero Radio & Television, died after a bullet attack on the truck of the company in which he was being transported. This when returning from the transmission of the report of Governor Hector Astudillo for his third year in office, which took place in the Diamond Zone of Acapulco. He was the son of the information chief of the newspaper La Jornada Guerrero, Javier Soriano.
According to the initial version released by the prosecution, the cause of the attack could be a discussion with another motorist who was armed. With his death, Soriano becomes the seventeenth communicator murdered so far this year in Mexico.
The next day, relatives and colleagues of the announcer marched to demand justice for his murder. In a statement, they denounced that since the beginning of the administration of Héctor Astudillo three journalists have been killed and one more was injured in a shooting attack. These crimes remain unpunished, they recalled. They pointed out that the wave of violence in the state “envelops us and (…) daily kills us with anxiety, because we do not know if our relatives, friends or companions will return alive to their homes”.
The Governor of Guerrero posted a message on Twitter lamenting the murder of Soriano and exhorting the State Attorney General to clarify the facts. Shortly after, Sam Soriano, the journalist’s daughter, responded in the same way: “My father was murdered working, covering his government report. Do your work and fix the situation in the state. IT’S NOT FAIR”.
The murder of Gabriel Soriano “is a terrible reminder that violence against journalists does not stop in the country, reinforcing what we already know: Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for those who do the work of informing society his passion and his profession”, said Jan Jarab, representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
For more information (in Spanish):
Asesinan en Acapulco al locutor Gabriel Soriano (Proceso, 24 de octubre de 2018)
Matan a hijo del jefe de información de ‘La Jornada Guerrero’ (La Jornada, 24 de octubre de 2018)
Muere el locutor Gabriel Soriano durante ataque a una camioneta de Radio y TV de Guerrero (Animal Político, 25 de octubre de 2018)
Asesinan a balazos a un locutor de RTG en la glorieta de Puerto Marqués (El Sur, 25 de octubre de 2018)
Protestan por asesinato del periodista y locutor Gabriel Soriano Kuri en Acapulco (Proceso, 25 de octubre de 2018)
ONU-DH y CNDH condenan el asesinato del periodista Gabriel Soriano (Proceso, 25 de octubre de 2018)
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