<p></p>
<p><span><span><span>Tijuana prosecutors won convictions against two cartel hitmen who committed and videotaped the murder of a local photojournalist earlier this year.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span>Alfonso Margarito Martínez Esquivel</span></span></span><span><span><span><span>, 49, was shot and killed outside of his home on January 19, 2022, in what police then thought was a dispute with a neighbor. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Martinez had worked with media outlets on both sides of the border for more than 20 years, focusing mostly on police investigations and drug cartel violence in Mexico.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>But police later arrested and charged two men with connections to a Mexican cartel member known as “Cabo 20”. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Prosecutors allege that the murder was ordered by Cabo 20 after an article published in Zeta, a Mexican news outlet, featured pictures of Cabo 20 and his family. They believed </span>Martínez<span> had taken the pictures.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>According to prosecutors, Manuel Ramos, known as “El Uber,” shot </span>Martínez<span> and Jose Heriberto Ochoa, known as “El Huesos” filmed the murder. Both were allegedly paid $1,000 for the hit.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Although the cartel members believed </span>Martínez<span> had taken the pictures, Zeta reported after the murder that the pictures were taken by another source.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Ramos and Ochoa were each convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span>Martínez<span> was the first journalist killed in Mexico in 2022, but another journalist, </span>Lourdes Maldonado López</span></span></span>, was killed the following week after attending a vigil for <span><span><span>Martínez</span></span></span>.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span><span>So far this year, 11 journalists have been killed in Mexico, making up nearly 20% of the 57 journalists killed around the world. This year has been the deadliest for journalists in Mexico, according to </span></span></span><span><span><span><span>media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p>Reporters without Borders reports that 57 journalist have been killed this year, an 18.8% increase last year, driven mainly by the drug violence in Mexico and the war in Ukraine.</p>
<p>At least 15 journalist have been killed this year in Ukraine, including six Russians, four Ukrainian, one Italian, one American, one Lithuanian, one Irish, and one French.</p>
