Miguel Angel Villa Gómez Valle, editor of Noticias de Michoacán, a daily newspaper based in Lázaro Cárdenas, in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacán was abducted and killed last week, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Villa Gómez’s bullet-riddled body was found October 10 morning in a refuse dump, less than 12 hours after he went missing.
“The list of kidnappings and execution-style killings of journalists continues to grow longer in areas of Mexico where organised crime is well-established,” Paris-based RSF said in a statement. “Our thoughts go out to the victim’s family and colleagues, whose grief will only be compounded if this murder goes unpunished. It is vital that the special prosecutor’s office for crimes of violence against journalists should have an immediate say in this investigation.”
The police found Villa Gómez’s body in a road-side refuse dump about 50 km outside Lázaro Cárdenas. He had been shot twice in the stomach and once in the head. Relatives told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that he left his office at about 10 p.m. on October 9 with the intention of going home. He had not mentioned getting any threats. His newspaper is a regional tabloid that often carries stories linked to corruption, organised crime and drug trafficking.
Abductions, disappearances and murders of journalists are common in this part of Mexico. Mauricio Estrada Zamora of the regional daily La Opinión de Apatzingán has been missing since February 12. Gerardo Israel García Pimentel of the daily La Opinión de Michoacán was gunned down on December 8, 2007 in Uruapan.
José Antonio García Apac, the editor of the weekly Ecos de la Cuenca, was last seen on November 20, 2006 near Tepalcatepec, as he was about to set off for his home in Morelia, the capital of Michoacán. The police investigation into his disappearance drew a blank. Freelance photographer Jaime Arturo Olvera Bravo, a former employee of La Voz de Michoacán, was killed on March 9, 2006 in La Piedad.
