Baja California prosecutors opened an investigation Thursday after a man set fire to a journalist’s vehicle in Tijuana.
Surveillance cameras captured images of a person approaching the parked and unoccupied vehicle of independent journalist Yolanda Caballero, who was conducting an interview in the Loma Dorada neighborhood at the time. The video shows him smashing the front passenger window and throwing something inside that caused an explosion.
He then fled the scene in a getaway car that pulled up quickly to the burning vehicle.
“We are investigating this incident with absolute priority, in the context of violence against women, as well as against a person who works as a journalist,” Baja California Attorney General María Elena Andrade said in a statement. “There is a double commitment on our part to investigate these events and to provide all the necessary protection to the victim.”
No arrests have been made as of Friday morning, and the motive is unclear.
Less than 24 hours prior to the attack, Caballero posted a video on her social media denouncing the Tijuana mayor for insinuating that she had brought a protester with her to a public event on Tuesday.
Caballero explained on her video that she had never seen the protester before, who appeared to be calling for clean streets in front of people attending an event outside Tijuana’s city hall. “It made me feel vulnerable and exposed,” Caballero said.
Mayor Montserrat Caballero, who is seeking re-election this year and of no relation to the reporter, issued a statement condemning the attack. “We urge the Baja California Attorney General’s Office to conduct the pertinent investigations to find the perpetrators, and we reiterate our willingness to cooperate in its probe.”
Investigators document the crime scene, photographing Yolanda Caballero’s vehicle.
(Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday when asked about the incident that Caballero was participating in a state protection program.
Such programs — both state and federal — allow journalists and human rights defenders who believe they are in danger to seek protection from the government.
López Obrador also called for an investigation. “We have to wait, I know both the mayor and the governor, and I consider them women of integrity, respectful of freedom. I do not consider them capable of an attack against anyone.”
The #YoSíSoyPeriodista collective, composed of local journalists, demanded a public apology from the mayor, saying that her comments made their colleague a “target” for either the mayor’s supporters or opponents.
Caballero runs her own news site, YolandaCaballero.mx, covering everything from politics and community issues to the border and entertainment. She has previously worked for other media outlets in Baja California.
In January 2022, two Tijuana journalists were shot to death outside their houses. While the perpetrators in both cases have been convicted or sentenced, the people who ordered the crimes remain at large.
#YoSíSoyPeriodista asked prosecutors to investigate Yolanda Caballero’s case as an attack against the freedom of press and to “avoid repeating the same story that has occurred with the murders of colleagues Margarito Martínez and Lourdes Maldonado in which the masterminds have not been prosecuted, which evidently encourages cases like the one seen today.”
Caballero said on social media that she has requested support from federal and state authorities, and said she will not cease in her journalistic work.
“Their cowardly violence will not make me back down but, on the contrary, will redouble my conviction to get to the truth, starting with the motive of this vile and vicious aggression that I will fight to the last consequences so that it does not go unpunished,” she wrote.
Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila said Thursday on her Facebook page that she had spoken with Caballero and offered protection.
“Freedom of speech is a fundamental value, so I’m committed to guaranteeing the free exercise of journalism and peace for all Baja Californians.”
