Mexico reporter recovers after being punched on camera

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A television reporter was recovering from surgery Tuesday after a man punched him on camera during a protest last week in Mexico City.

Reporter Juan Manuel Jiménez was covering a protest over violence against women when a young man blindsided him with a punch to the head.

Jiménez works for the TV station ADN40. He was stunned by the punch and fell to the ground, but later walked away with help. He reportedly suffered damage to his nasal septum.

The station’s director said in a Tweet that surgery on Jiménez had gone well. Luciano Pascoe wrote Jiménez would “return to the screen and defend freedom of expression.”

The suspect in the attack has not been identified. President Andres Manuel López Obrador questioned the suspect’s presence at the march and suggested he was a provocateur.

“Now with what happened at the women’s march, of course there were provocateurs, that’s the thing, there are always infiltrators, provocateurs,” López Obrador said.

“It may be that women go out to defend a just cause, and there are people who just want to provoke or cause problems, who want to set up a confrontation with the government or the public,” he said.

Some female protesters at the Friday demonstration had hit photographers at the scene or sprayed them with paint, but none of those attackers were as serious as the punch.

Some protesters had sprayed Jiménez with glitter — the trademark of the protests — but after Jiménez was punched, some protesters tried to hit or detain his attacker.

“For example, that guy who punched a reporter, what connection did he have with the women’s march?” López Obrador asked.