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Alert

Gunmen slay newspaper editor in Veracruz state

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF has voiced outrage over the 8 April 2005 murder of Raúl Gibb Guerrero, editor of the regional daily "La Opinión", in Papantla, in the eastern state of Veracruz. The authorities reportedly suspect drug traffickers of being behind the killing.

"There have been three extremely serious acts of violence against the Mexican press in a week," RSF protested in a letter to the federal justice minister.

"The disappearance of Alfredo Jiménez Mota, the editor of the daily 'El Imparcial' in northwestern Sonora state, on 2 April, the attempt on the life of radio journalist Guadalupe García Escamilla of Estéreo 91 XHNOE in Nuevo Laredo, in northeastern Tamaulipas State, on 5 April, and Raúl Gibb Guerrero's death now signal a further deterioration in the situation of journalists in Mexico," the letter said.

"The scourge of drug trafficking directly threatens press freedom. It falls to the federal authorities to react to this nationwide menace by combating organised crime and ensuring the media are protected. Too many local investigations have led nowhere, sustaining a climate of impunity that must not be allowed to continue," the letter concluded.

Gibb was gunned down on his way home at around 9:30 p.m. (local time), about 200 metres from his home. He sustained seven bullet injuries, three in the head, three in the abdomen and one in the left arm. Police said the shots were fired from a distance of about two metres. According to witnesses, four men fired about 15 times from two cars that were following Gibb's car. The journalist's car ran off the road and crashed into a ditch.

The killing bore the hallmarks of a contract killer's work. The Associated Press (AP) news agency quoted José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the prosecutor in charge of the case, as saying he suspected a link with drug traffickers, who are very active in Veracruz State. "La Opinión", which is sold in the north of the state, often devotes articles to drug trafficking and had published one the day before Gibb's murder.

A year ago, the newspaper also reported on the theft and trafficking of fuel from the state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos. A local businessman was subsequently forced out of business and is now being prosecuted for tax evasion.

Despite the enemies he had made as a result of his work, Gibb never requested a bodyguard. He is the first journalist to be killed this year in Mexico. Three were murdered in 2004.