XALAPA, MEXICO (BDCi) –Gunmen shot dead a journalist, his wife and their 21-year-old son after bursting into their home in Veracruz, on Monday morning, said the governor of the eastern Mexican state.
The columnist Miguel Angel Lopez, 55, known as Milo Vela, used to work for the local daily Notiver and was frequently writing about politics and the climate violence surrounding Mexico’s drug wars.
The governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, said he doesn’t “know how many people went in (Lopez´s house) and there they killed him, his wife and his son. It’s a tragedy.”
Duarte also said Lopez was a “brave man” and he vowed to get to the bottom of the killing.
Three weeks ago another journalist from Veracruz was killed by gunmen. Noel Lopez Olguin was left him in a shallow grave and a drug gang leader confessed to the murder.
According to the official National Human Rights Commission, since January 2007, 40 journalists have been murdered in Mexico. And since 2003, 15 journalists have disappeared.
Mexico was considered the most dangerous country for journalists in the western hemisphere, in June, according to a U.N. report on freedom of expression.
Since President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out, military-led crackdown on drug cartels right after taking office in December 2006, an estimate of 36 thousand people have died in drug-related violence.
By Ana Paula Silvani Source: AFP – GLOBAL POST
June 22, 2011