Mexico investigates local mayor after journalist murdered

[Blue_Tires]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Mexican prosecutors are investigating a small-town mayor in connection with the murder of a journalist in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz, whose brutalized body was found over the weekend, a state official said on Monday.

A local drug gang member confessed to kidnapping and killing journalist Moises Sanchez, in league with five accomplices, Veracruz state prosecutor Luis Bravo said. The accused said he was given orders by a local police official and the bodyguard of Medellin de Bravo Mayor Omar Cruz,

There was also evidence of a dispute between Cruz and the slain reporter, Bravo added. Cruz could not immediately be reached for comment. Bravo told Reuters he will ask state lawmakers on Monday to strip the mayor of his immunity from prosecution, a privilege that elected officials have in Mexico.

"It would be irresponsible not to proceed and ask for his immunity to be lifted so that we can investigate the mayor," Bravo said.

The death is the latest in a series of grisly gangland killings to blight Mexico, where more than 100,000 people have been killed in gang-related violence since 2007. Sanchez, who was the editor of the local newspaper La Union, had been missing since Jan 2. He is the 11th journalist killed in Veracruz in the past four years, according to Article 19, a group that advocates for freedom of expression.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/26/us-mexico-violence-idUSKBN0KZ2FQ20150126

[Judi Lynn]

1. Mexican journalist beheaded for ‘poking the hornet’s nest’

Mexican journalist beheaded for ‘poking the hornet’s nest’
By Rafa Fernandez De Castro @rafafc91
Posted 01/27/2015 1:26 pm

An ex-cop turned narco hitman has confessed to the brutal beheading of Mexican journalist Moises Sanchez, whose headless body was discovered Saturday in Veracruz, on the Gulf coast of Mexico.

The killer, arrested the following day, said he murdered the newspaperman following a chain of command that leads all the way to the mayor’s office of Medellin de Bravo. A state prosecutor has issued an arrest warrant for Mayor Omar Cruz, who is attempting to shelter himself from capture under the condition of legal immunity.

The apprehended hitman told police he targeted Sanchez because his reporting on the local government’s alleged links to organized crime and lack of security in the municipality was “poking the hornet’s nest.” Sanchez was kidnapped from his home on Jan. 2. He was beheaded the same day.

The prosecutor’s office is asking the state congress to remove the mayor’s legal immunity to proceed with its case against him.
Sanchez’s grisly murder comes on the heels of several other incidents that reaffirms Mexico’s unhappy position as one of the most dangerous nations on earth for journalists.

More:
http://fusion.net/story/40778/mexican-journalist-beheaded-for-poking-the-hornets-nest/