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Mexican environmental journalist Alex Serna found dead in Zihuatanejo

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Mexican environmental journalist Alex Serna found dead in Zihuatanejo

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Mexico City, July 9, 2026—Mexican authorities must immediately and credibly investigate the killing of environmental journalist and content creator Manuel Alejandro Mora Serna and determine whether he was attacked in relation to his work as a reporter, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

The Guerrero State Human Rights Commission (CDHEG) confirmed in a July 3 statement on Facebook that Serna’s body was found June 22 in Zihuatanejo, in the southern state of Guerrero, according to news reports, though the date has not been confirmed by state authorities. He had been reported missing on June 20, according to the same news reports, which added that Serna’s body showed signs of torture.

“The shocking killing of Alex Serna is the third of a Mexican journalist in less than a month, underscoring Mexico’s abysmal status as the most dangerous country for the press in the western hemisphere”, said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico Representative. “Once again Mexican authorities must show that they are willing and able to end the cycle of violence and impunity that continues to plague the nation’s press.”

Alejandro Serna, known locally as Alex, combined work as a content creator, investigative journalist and environmental activist out of Zihuatanejo, a coastal city popular with tourists in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, according to the news reports. He published mainly on his personal pages on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, where he had a combined total of almost 200,000 followers.

On his pages, Serna reported and commented on environmental issues, often tied to allegations of corruption of local businesses and politicians. Most recently, he uploaded videos about a foreign-held company allegedly extracting water from the Zihuatanejo are without proper permits, the Zihuatanejo municipal government allegedly removing trees for commercial purposes and the Zihuatanejo seaport demolishing a local pier, allegedly without proper permits. 

On March 4, Serna posted a screenshot of a death threat he had received. He said the sender was a relative of Zihuatanejo mayor Lizette Tapia Castro, whom he regularly accused of corruption. Several phone calls by CPJ to Tapia’s office for comment were not answered. Phone calls to the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office (FGE) for comment were not answered.

An official at the federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which coordinates protection programs for journalists at risk supervised by the Mexican federal government, confirmed to CPJ on July 10 that Serna had not been incorporated in a protection program by his agency. The official asked not to be named to be able to comment on the matter.

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