Video still: Frida Guerrera.
Three days ago, Mexican journalist Frida Guerrera posted on Instagram: “They threaten us again to be the next FEMICIDE. One more time. We have no fear. We will never be silenced. It does alter us. But here we go again.”
Infobae now reports: “On February 1, journalist Frida Guerrera denounced on social networks a direct threat that endangered her integrity.”
“On Wednesday, February 4, the organization dedicated to the defense of freedom of expression Article 19, exposed the case and condemned the facts, requesting the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to urgently investigate the threats. …Article 19 called on the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to investigate the case urgently, requesting that a gender perspective and intersections be adopted in the process.”
The article continues: “Given the constant risk she faces, since 2019 Frida Guerrera has had protection measures provided by the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders. These actions seek to protect their safety in the face of the series of threats and aggressions suffered in the exercise of their work.”
An article in El Universal also reports: “[Article 19] asked the Protection Mechanism to provide adequate and pertinent measures to ensure her integrity, since, she denounced, the communicator has been forced on several occasions to self-censor as a form of protection.”
The Article 19 alert can be read in full at Death and sexual violence threats against journalist Frida Guerrera Villalvazo (February 4, 2026).
Frida Guerrera
In February 2021, The Guardian reported:
“Frida Guerrera is a journalist who hunts down men who kill women.
For the past five years, Guerrera, who is 50, has devoted nearly every waking hour to searching for disappeared women and memorialising the victims of femicide. A distinct crime recognised in many Latin American countries, femicide is defined as the murder of a woman because of her gender.
Every day, Guerrera trawls national and regional news outlets, identifies femicide cases and catalogues victims’ age, location and the method of their murder on a spreadsheet. She then selects a few cases to write up on her blog, a never-ending scroll of pictures of victims, which she gathers from interviews with their parents.
Throughout the day, Guerrera posts missing person notices on her Twitter and Facebook pages and asks her tens of thousands of social media followers to help find the women or the men who targeted them.”
In October 2018, Vice noted: “In total, Guerrera has brought more than 200 stories into the public eye— where the government fails to report, she pieces accounts together, visiting the victim’s home and talking with parents, husbands, and children. Guerrera shares their stories on her blog and column with VICE Mexico, as well as a nightly Periscope broadcast in which she provides a daily update on the subject. …Her social life is limited due to the numerous death threats she receives and the constant anxiety that she may be the next woman on her own list.”
Previous threats
The Infobae article this week highlights: “According to the journalist, recognized for her independent work in the coverage of femicides and gender violence, this is not the first time she has suffered this type of threat.”
In fact, in August 2009, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project noted: “Among the recent cases of attacks against journalists in Oaxaca … an independent reporter and author of the blog Frida Guerrera, was physically and verbally assaulted in downtown Oaxaca on January 29, 2009.”
And in July 2017, PBI-Mexico shared that “Frida Guerrera, journalist and beneficiary of the Protection Mechanism” was a panelist at the launch of the Third Report by Espacio OSC on the Protection Mechanism.
Quadratin Mexico reported at that time: “Impunity and the lack of adequate investigation of the attacks and murders of journalists and human rights defenders fuel and exacerbate these attacks, as diagnosed in the report Comprehensive Protection for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, the debt of the Mexican State.”
PBI-Canada highlights at this crucial time that at the United Nations Universal Periodic Review session held on January 24, 2024, the Government of Canada recommended that Mexico: “Strengthen, from an intersectional and gender perspective, the federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, specifically in the areas of prevention, protection, investigation, and reparation.”
From Canada, we remain attentive to the situation faced by journalist Frida Guerrera and amplify the calls for protection measures.
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Article 19 and PBI-Mexico are members of the Space of Civil Society Organizations for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC). You can hear more about the need to strengthen the Protection Mechanism by registering here for this webinar on February 12.
