On July 15, 2023, several unidentified attackers shot and killed Nelson Matus Peña, founder and editor of Lo Real de Guerrero, in a parking lot in the Mexican Pacific coast city of Acapulco.
Lo Real de Guerrero, a news website and Facebook page, frequently covered crime, violence, and security issues in Acapulco, a city long popular with foreign and domestic tourists.
Matus’ killing occurred just one week after reporter Luis Martín Sánchez was found dead in the northern Mexican state of Nayarit.
The Guerrero prosecutor’s office announced on July 15 that it had opened an investigation. CPJ repeatedly called the office for comment but no one answered.
Matus founded Lo Real de Guerrero several years before his death and also contributed to local media outlets including Alarma magazine, the El Alarmante newspaper and news website Agora Guerrero. CPJ contacted those outlets for comment but did not receive any replies.
In the days before his death, Lo Real de Guerrero published several stories without a byline covering violent incidents and deadly shootouts in Acapulco.
Matus escaped a potential assassination attempt by unidentified assailants in 2017, and the mother of Lo Real de Guerrero administrator Reina Balbuena was killed that March, news reports said.
CPJ contacted an official with the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists for comment but did not receive any response.