Reporters Without Borders today called for the federal authorities to be fully involved in the investigation into yesterday’s murder of Amado Ramírez, the correspondent of the privately-owned TV station Televisa, in Acapulco, in the southern state of Guerrero, in a wave of killings that has left 14 dead in the past 24 hours.
“Ramírez’s death must be taken seriously by the authorities,” the press freedom organisation said. “Given the scale of the violence that has affected three states, there must be a major effort to establish the circumstances of this journalist’s execution-style killing and to identify those responsible. And the case must be handled at the federal level.”
Ramírez was shot three times by a gunman who had followed him as he left his work place in downtown Acapulco, Televisa said. The authorities blamed drug traffickers for three other murders yesterday in Guerrero state. A total of ten other people were murdered in the northwestern state of Sinaloa and the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.
The federal prosecutor’s office meanwhile reported that a total of 384 people suspected of involvement in drug trafficking have been murdered in Mexico since 15 March.
