Investigative journalist Zorayda Gallegos found that more than 520 women reported sexual offences in Mexico’s armed forces over a 12-year period, and that only three per cent of those cases ended in a conviction, according to UN News. The other 97 per cent led to no effective sanctions. Her report, “Sexual violence in the barracks: an X-ray of impunity,” won the 2026 Breach/Valdez Award for Journalism and Human Rights.
UN News published her account ahead of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists on Monday. The reporting has also made her a target, UN News said, in one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a reporter. “If an officer says, ‘Come into my bedroom,’ she must go in, otherwise she would be disobeying an order from her superior,” she told UN News.
Gallegos said the problem is structural, not isolated, and reaches beyond the barracks into military schools and hospitals. She documented how high-ranking officials cover up abuse, and how gender inequality and institutional obstacles discourage victims from filing complaints. She described military training as “a very hierarchical, top-down system where women are always taught to follow orders from their superiors.”
That training leaves female soldiers vulnerable to the officers they answer to, she said. Deep-rooted sexism shapes who gets which jobs and who gets promoted, she said. Female soldiers are often assigned tasks associated with caregiving and nursing even when they are qualified for higher-ranking positions, she told UN News.
Women who take cases to court risk being victimised again, Gallegos found. Some judicial rulings contain sexist remarks or lack any gender perspective, she said. Inside the institution, psychological support for complainants is geared toward getting them to forgive their aggressors, forget what happened and continue their military careers, she said.
Men who are accused are often given recommendations rather than punishments, which Gallegos called the maximum response. She said more women are needed in senior military leadership and decision-making roles, and in the judiciary and prosecution services. Exposing the abuse has brought her intimidating remarks, veiled threats and pressure, UN News reported.
She still defends the right to publish information in the public interest and to report independently and impartially, according to UN News. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) regularly highlights Mexico as one of the deadliest countries in the world for the press, even though it is not officially at war. UNESCO promotes the safety of journalists through global awareness-raising.
Collusion between organized crime and local authorities is a serious threat to reporters, and its effects are felt at every level of the justice system, UN News reported. Journalists investigating politics or crime face threats, kidnapping, enforced disappearance and murder, and many are forced to flee abroad.
According to UNESCO, which tallies threats to media workers worldwide, 154 journalists have been murdered in Mexico in the past 20 years. The agency has confirmed that eight journalists have been murdered in Mexico so far in 2026. Press freedom groups including Article 19 and Reporters Without Borders put the toll at nine, after the killing of Hamurabi Huesca Manzano in Oaxaca on Oct. 9.
The award Gallegos won carries the names of Miroslava Breach and Javier Valdez, who were assassinated because of their work. She said they stood for brave journalism rooted in their communities and committed to telling uncomfortable truths, until it cost them their lives, and that should never have happened.