17 November 2006
EDITOR OF GUERRERO STATE DAILY MURDERED
Misael Tamayo Hernández, editor and owner of the daily "El Despertar de la Costa", was found dead in a motel room in Zihuatanejo, a Pacific coastal resort town in the southern state of Guerrero, on 10 November 2006, report the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), the Institute for Press and Society (Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, IPYS), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).
Tamayo's body was found unclothed, with his hands tied behind his back. Three small puncture marks on his arm suggested he may have been given a lethal injection. A preliminary autopsy concluded that he died from a massive heart attack.
The motive behind the murder is still unknown, but there are indications it may have been related to his newspaper's investigative reporting on organised crime, drug trafficking and local corruption. Colleagues and family members said Tamayo had received death threats recently.
Tamayo was the fifth journalist killed this year in Mexico, and two others are missing, making it "the western hemisphere's deadliest country for the press," says RSF. A recent IAPA report on press freedom in Mexico stated that "organised crime continues to claim the lives and minds of journalists."
Visit these links:
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19696
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/americas/mexico13nov06na.html
- IAPA: http://www.sipiapa.com/pulications/informe_mexico2006o.cfm
- "International Herald Tribune": http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/11/america/LA_GEN_Mexico_Editor_Slain.php
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