Missing Mexican journalist found dead in Veracruz state

[Judi Lynn]

Missing Mexican journalist found dead in Veracruz state
By RODRIGO SOBERANES, Associated Press | January 25, 2015 | Updated: January 25, 2015 11:04pm

VERACRUZ, Mexico (AP) — The body of a journalist who was abducted by armed men three weeks ago has been found in eastern Mexico, authorities said Sunday, adding that a former police officer has confessed to carrying out the crime allegedly at the request of the town's mayor.

The Jan. 2 disappearance of Moises Sanchez had sparked protests in Veracruz state, where at least 11 journalists have been killed since December 2010, making it one of the most dangerous states in Mexico for reporters.

Sanchez was a social activist and journalist in the town of Medellin de Bravo who published a weekly, "La Union," which covered local government corruption and violent deaths, as well as printing citizen complaints. Sanchez's relatives said he received threats and had pointed to Mayor Omar Cruz, a frequent target of the journalist's reports, as the main suspect in his disappearance.

On Sunday, Veracruz state prosecutor Luis Angel Bravo announced that Sanchez's body was found the previous day on the outskirts of Medellin de Bravo.

Bravo said an ex-police officer confessed to participating in Sanchez's murder along with five other people at the instructions of the deputy director of the town's police force allegedly at the request of Cruz. The ex-police officer said they decapitated the journalist, mutilated his body and abandoned it in a ravine.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Missing-Mexican-journalist-found-dead-in-Veracruz-6039692.php

[Demeter]

1. Horror unbounded

Makes US police look "civilized" almost. A nicer shade of murder...one could say.

[Judi Lynn]

2. 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/