Alejandro Leyva Aguilar, 58, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the town of San Pablo Etla, just north of the state capital of Oaxaca de Juárez in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, according to news reports and a statement by the Oaxaca state prosecutor’s office. Reports noted that he was eating at a food stand near his residence at the time of the attack. News outlets reported at least two attackers riding a motorcycle. The perpetrators fled the scene.
Leyva Aguilar was a former director of CORTV, a Oaxaca-based television broadcaster, and was more recently mostly active as an opinion writer and columnist. He published his columns on his personal Facebook page, which has 21,000 followers, under the title ‘El Zumbido del Mascarpón,’ in which he was fiercely critical of Oaxaca state Gov. Salomón Jara and wrote about organized crime, corruption and abuse of power by state and local authorities.
According to Oaxaca-based news website Página 3, Leyva Aguilar filed a complaint against governor Jara at the office of the state ombudsman on July 14, 2025, after the governor mentioned him in a section of his daily news conference in which his government responds to reporting the state government considers hostile. According to the report, Leyva Aguilar had received threats and intimidating phone calls after he was singled out by the governor.
According to the same report, Leyva had filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office on July 16, 2026 against Jara, two state officials, and other individuals who he believed to be involved in threats against him. On July 25, 2025, in a column published on his Facebook page, Leyva wrote he feared voicing criticism of the state government.
Jara condemned Leyva’s killing in a July 22, 2026 post, praised Leyva’s critical reporting and said his government is “respectful of criticism and freedom of expression.” CPJ’s request for comment via telephone did not receive a reply.
On July 24, 2026, federal Secretary for Citizen Security Omar García Harfuch confirmed in a press conference that the federal Attorney General’s Office federalized the case and has taken charge of the investigation. He declined to give further details about the lines of investigation or whether suspects had been identified.