Shots fired at local broadcaster in Mexican state of Quintana Roo

Mexico City, October 26, 2017–Two unidentified assailants shot at the building of local broadcaster Canal 10, in Cancún, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo on October 24, 2017, injuring an employee of the broadcaster.

The attack took place around noon, according to Patricia Vázquez, a reporter for Canal 10. She told CPJ in a telephone conversation that two individuals approached the building on foot via its parking lot and, without warning, fired six times at the glass door leading to the building’s reception area.

Alfredo Galán, an accountant for Canal 10, was hit by one of the bullets. He was given medical attention and is expected to recover, according to news reports. Vázquez said that about 50 employees were in the building at the time of the shooting and that no other injuries were reported.

The shooters fled on foot, according to Vázquez and news reports. In a statement given to local press on October 24, the state’s attorney general, Miguel Ángel Pech Cen, said that state police pursued the attackers but failed to capture them. Police found a pistol near the crime scene that authorities have analyzed, Pech Cen told reporters.

The attorney general told reporters that the event was likely random, but that police have not discarded a possible link to Canal 10’s news reports. The network covers news, entertainment, and current events.

Vázquez told CPJ that none of the network’s reporters, producers or directors reported recently receiving threats or hostile responses to their work. Vázquez said that several years ago a narcomanta–a banner with a message attributed to organized crime groups–was left at the broadcaster’s building. CPJ was unable to find further information about that incident.

CPJ has documented other violent incidents against journalists in Quintana Roo state in 2017, including police aggression and a knife attack in the resort city of Playa del Carmen.