Mitzar Bato Castillejos Tenazoa

Their life

Mitzar Castillejos Tenazoa was a Peruvian journalist and media editor known for investigative reporting on local corruption in the Peruvian Amazon. A TV news presenter at Radio Latín Plus 107.7 FM and editor of the website Bato a Informarte Noticias, he was targeted in a shooting in Aguaytía, Ucayali region, and later died in a Lima hospital on 26 December 2025. His killing marked the fourth journalist death in Peru that year and underscored escalating violence against the press.

Mitzar Castillejos Tenazoa, 34, worked in Aguaytía (Ucayali), where his reporting frequently exposed alleged irregularities and corruption involving municipal authorities. On 12 December 2025, as he left his home to go to the radio station, gunmen shot him at close range. He sustained severe injuries to the abdomen and an arm. Initially treated in Tingo María, his condition worsened, and he was transferred to María Auxiliadora Hospital in Lima, where he remained in critical condition before succumbing to his injuries on 26 December. Press-freedom organizations reported his death as part of a broader pattern of attacks on journalists in Peru.

How they died

Mitzar Castillejos Tenazoa was killed because of a targeted attack linked to his journalistic work, particularly his investigations and reporting on alleged corruption and irregularities involving local and municipal authorities in the Ucayali region of Peru.

Tenazoa was shot by unidentified assailants in a targeted attack on 12 December 2025. He suffered critical abdominal and arm injuries, underwent emergency treatment, and was later transferred to Lima due to deterioration. Despite intensive medical care, he died from complications of the gunshot wounds on 26 December 2025.

Additional context

A targeted shooting believed to be retaliation for his investigative journalism

Why we remember them

This record exists so that Mitzar Bato Castillejos Tenazoa, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources