Mexico: media director Roxana Berenice Guzmán Ramírez abducted in Veracruz

At least three armed and masked men forced their way into Roxana Berenice Guzman Ramirez's home in Nanchital on the morning of 2 June. Video footage of the attack - filmed by the journalist herself before she was abducted - quickly circulated on social media, showing the assailants breaking through the front door with a heavy tool before entering the house and threatening the media director with firearms. According to media reports, the assailants then took Guzmán to an unknown location.

The Veracruz State Attorney General's Office confirmed that an investigation has been opened and stated that prosecutors, forensic experts and investigative police officers have been deployed to locate the journalist and identify those responsible. The search operation involves both state and federal authorities, including the Veracruz public security secretariat, the navy, the national guard and the ministerial police.

Roxana Guzmán is the founding journalist behind Pulso Informativo del Sureste, a local news initiative based in Nanchital, a municipality of approximately 30,000 inhabitants in the southern state of Veracruz. Its main platform is a Facebook news page followed by around 20,000 people, where Guzmán reports on community affairs, citizen complaints, public services, municipal politics, public security issues and other matters of local interest.

Following her abduction, the Veracruz State Commission for the Attention and Protection of Journalists (CEAPP) dispatched a team to the area to support her family. In 2019, Mexican media reported that Guzmán had already sought assistance from the CEAPP after reporting alleged harassment by a municipal agent in Nanchital.

This is not the first time Guzmán and her family have been affected by violence. In 2017, Carlos Fernández Escalante, her partner, was shot dead in Nanchita. According to local news reports, Guzmán subsequently spent several years away from Veracruz before returning to Nanchital and resuming her reporting through Pulso Informativo del Sureste.

Veracruz has long been one of Mexico's most dangerous states for journalists. Guzmán's abduction comes amid persistent violence against the press, particularly against local reporters covering security issues, municipal politics and citizen complaints. According to RSF data, at least 28 journalists are currently missing in Mexico, one of the most extreme manifestations of violence against the right to inform. Mexico ranks 122nd out of 180 countries in the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index.