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Alert

Molotov cocktails thrown at Oaxaca newspaper editor's home

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders condemns an attack on the home of Carlos Velasco Molina, editor of the weekly "El Correo de Oaxaca", in the southwestern city of Oaxaca in the early hours of 9 January 2009. Two Molotov cocktails were thrown at his house, starting a fire but causing no injuries. Fearing the possibility of violence, Velasco had moved his family to a different location a few weeks ago.

Velasco accused Oaxaca state governor Ulíses Ruiz Ortiz and his spokesman, Héctor Pablo Ramírez, of being behind the attack and called for a federal investigation. Velasco, who was the spokesman for the previous governor of Oaxaca, José Murat, told journalists the attack was in response to articles in the last two issues of his newspaper criticising Oaxaca's current government. Responding to the charges, Ramírez said he suspected Velasco staged the attack himself.