Sandra ROMANDÍA

Image Credit; PeparioG/Wikkicommons

Mexican author and journalist Sandra Romandía reported to PEN International that during 2025 she was forced to leave Mexico around the time her most recent book was due to be published, for fear of physical threats. After the book was published, she faced surveillance, telephone threats and monitoring by criminal groups. 

Since March 2025, while investigating the case of Rancho Izaguirre in Teuchitlán, Jalisco — a site where families of disappeared persons uncovered evidence believed to be linked to forced recruitment and killings by drug cartels — she has reportedly been followed by unidentified individuals, received indirect warnings not to publish her findings, and received direct threats via her mobile phone from numbers linked to Michoacán state. According to the threats, her movements were being monitored and her life would be at risk if she continued her investigation. 

Her latest book, Witnesses of Horror (Grijalbo/Penguin Random House, 2025) shows how municipal, state and federal authorities allegedly permitted the operation of the clandestine site through collusion or systematic neglect.  

Romandía has faced threats and harassment linked to her investigative work and books covering corruption, violence, drug trafficking and human rights violations since at least 2019.  

Sandra Romandía, born in 1983, is a prominent Mexican investigative journalist and author based in Mexico City. She is the author of the books Las 7 Mafias Chilangas, Narco CDMX, and co-author of The 12 poorest Mexicans.  She co-founded Opinión 51 (www.opinion51.com) and founded the microsite La Cadera de Eva (Eva's Hip), the first within a media outlet in Mexico dedicated exclusively to gender equality issues and women's stories. She received the 2020 Maria Moors Cabot scholarship, she studied at Columbia University and is an alumna of its Latin American Investigative Journalism program, as well as a scholarship recipient at Universidad Iberoamericana.