Mexico: CFWIJ is deeply saddened by the passing of legendary journalist Jo Tuckman

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July 10, 2020, Mexico City, Mexico -- The Coalition For Women In Journalism is deeply saddened by the passing of Mexico based beloved journalist Jo Tuckman. Jo had been battling cancer and she passed peacefully at her Mexico City home last night.

Jo Tuckman spent two decades in Mexico as a freelance correspondent where she moved in the year 2000, in anticipation of the fall of 71 years of one party rule. Before that she worked as a staff reporter and editor in the Iberia bureau of a major international news agency. She first started working as a journalist in the mid 90s covering the end of the Central American civil wars. Prior to that she worked in human rights, following on from a masters degree in Latin American Studies and an undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology.

In her more than two decades of successful career Jo wrote for prominent news organizations like The Guardian, Telegraph and the Vice. Jo is also the author of the book Mexico: Democracy Interrupted where she wrote an “up-to-date portrait of Mexico since 2000, with new insights into the nation's problematic democracy and violent drug wars”.

In her vivid account of Mexico's recent history, she investigated the nation’s young democracy, its shortcomings and achievements.

Jo, as a journalist with extensive reporting experience although was seasoned in politics also wrote about lifestyle, society and health in Mexico. Her 2005 article for the Guardian covered the stories of patients coming from across the Atlantic to therapy centers in Tijuana with hopes of recovery from the notorious disease that eventually took her life.

She also covered protests and women and LGBTI rights in Central and South America with genuine passion. In the late years Jo wrote brilliant articles on immigrants and the border crisis between Mexico and the US under the Trump administration.

“Jo was a wonderful colleague and was a great support to fellow journalists,” recalls our founder Kiran Nazish. “When I arrived in Mexico in 2016, she shared a great deal of knowledge with me. To share one’s expertise of a region one had spent their life understanding is very generous for a reporter. Jo was a sharp, and realistic  journalist, and it’s a heartbreak to know she had to go so soon. We will remember her always.”

Jo was a loving mother and a caring person all around for children, as can be seen through her 2014 article for the Guardian titled ‘Flee or die’: violence drives Central America’s child migrants to US border”.

Her death aggrieved many of her colleagues and friends who remember her for her “bravery”, “talent”, “compassion” and “generosity”.

Our love and condolences go out to Jo’s family and friends. Her death will not only leave a gap in the lives of those who knew her and worked with her, but also in the field she contributed to throughout her career.