The Veracruz Attorney General’s Office has confirmed the discovery of the remains of journalist Roxana Guzmán, who was kidnapped from her home in Nanchital, in the southern part of the state, exactly one month ago. The state agency has arrested eight people in connection with her disappearance and murder, including four municipal police officers from Ixhuatlán del Sureste.
This Friday, the Guzmán family’s worst fears were confirmed. The journalist was murdered at a ranch in Moloacán by a criminal group comprised of Javier Iván N, alias Delta 1; José del Carmen N, known as Delta 7, who was identified by Roxana’s mother as one of the assailants who abducted the journalist from her home; his girlfriend, Kenia N, known as La Hiena (The Hyena); and Luis Arturo N, alias El Pelón (The Bald One). The state agency has not yet released information on the line of investigation into the journalist’s murder.
The kidnapping of Roxana Guzmán shook a country accustomed to attacks on its journalists. The journalist’s family managed to record on video the brutal moment when an armed group broke down the door of the house where her brother and nephews lived. At that moment, according to Rubicelia Ramírez, Roxana’s mother, the journalist was already subdued on the ground in the shared patio. She was already being beaten. After taking the entire family outside, the armed group forced Roxana into a car and drove off. José del Carmen, Javier Iván, and Luis Arturo, now in custody, were three of those kidnappers. Ramírez indicated, however, that four men took her daughter.
The speed at which the video went viral, the outrage it sparked, and the swiftness of Roxana’s family’s pleas for help—reporting the kidnapping, reaching Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, and getting the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to take over the investigation—all proved futile. Despite all the careful steps taken by her family, the founder of Pulso Informativo del Sureste has been found dead. Authorities have taken a month to provide them with an answer.
With Roxana’s murder, Veracruz reaches 34 journalists killed and remains the deadliest state for the press in Mexico, which is already the second country in the world with the most journalist deaths. In just these first few months of 2026, three journalists have been murdered in the country: all three in Veracruz. Governor Rocío Nahle, a member of the Morena party, has yet to comment on the discovery, especially after confirmation of state agents’ involvement in the journalist’s murder.
