María Elena Ferral Hernández

Writing under siege

María Elena’s 33-year-long career gave her a unique position. She had a prime network of sources, and officials note that she provided information that was crucial in leading to the arrest of the two alleged murderers of Leobardo Vázquez, another journalist from Gutiérrez Zamora, who was killed on 21 March 2018.

The quality of her work brought her prestige, and it earned her a national journalism award. But it also courted danger. She began to receive death threats. She assumed the source was Basilio Picazo and the Totonacapan group.

The first violent attack María Elena experienced was linked to the 2004 murder of Alonso Vázquez, a former municipal councilor in Coyutla, who had accused Picazo of corruption as mayor.

‘[In an interview,] Vázquez told my mom that Basilio, gun in hand, had threatened to kill him. Just a few days later, Vázquez was killed,’ Fernanda said.

María Elena gave the tape from that interview to the authorities investigating the crime. Days later, unknown men shot her outside her house, wounding her in the leg. ‘She didn’t file a police report out of fear,’ Fernanda explained.

Two men were arrested for Vázquez’s murder; one revealed that Picazo had paid him 70 000 pesos (around 3 500 dollars). Later, an arrest warrant was issued against the former mayor, but he was never detained.

Seven years later, in 2012, Ferral was attacked again. This time, gunmen opened fire as she and her family were driving, causing their car to hit another vehicle. The attackers managed to get away.

In 2016, Picazo ran for state congress for the district of Papantla, marking his return to politics. The same year, Elena filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s office against him, after allegedly telling her in front of reporters that she had only ‘a few days’ to live. Her daughter now says that government officials pushed her to drop the accusations.

A home by the river, a dream unfulfilled

As she approached 50, María Elena dreamt of buying a house by the Tecolutla River, in her home town, far from the stress and pressures of her profession.

María Elena had worked hard for many years to realize her ambition. At the age of 16, she was studying at college while working at the El Sol de Tampico local newspaper. From her early days, her life was distinguished by a near-military discipline, habits forged from a childhood in the countryside. She brought that vigour when she returned to Veracruz, writing as a correspondent for El Diario de Xalapa, covering politics and crime. Years later she founded her website.

Every day, her daughter said, she would wake up at 6 a.m., check the messages on her  three phones, take her son to school and, on her way back, buy newspapers to check in on the important issues of the state and her region.

The same woman who condemned abuses against the dispossessed and demanded justice for the murders of other journalists also had an indulgent, loving motherly side.

‘She liked to go to the movies with us; it served as a distraction. She also used to make the time to help my brother with homework. And she was mortified when there was no money,’ Fernanda said without even crying. Her character, strong as iron, is something she inherited from her mother.

On 23 May 2020, María Elena would have turned 50. Fernanda recalled her mother’s last birthday. ‘I took her to her favourite restaurant, and she ate a seafood casserole. The truth is she will be missed a lot.’

The family continue to wait for justice for their mother. Their wait may well be a long one. Official records show that of the 24 cases of journalists in Veracruz who have been murdered over the last eight years, only four people have been sentenced: an 87 per cent impunity rate. Justice rarely comes.

February 2024 update

Throughout 2023, media NGO Alianza de Medios Mx followed the Ferral murder trial. Observers of the trial questioned why the Public Prosecutor’s Office did not investigate the case from a gender perspective or ask the judge to consider the aggravating circumstance of a crime against freedom of expression in the four sentences handed down so far, given that the attorney general, Verónica Hernández Giadáns, stated in 2020 that Ferral was murdered because of her journalistic work.

However, a court ruling in February 2024 could change the outcome of the trial for the four co-accused who have already been convicted. The district judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence against one of the co-accused, Antonio Zaleta. It is believed that the same decision could be made in relation to the other co-accused.