About IFEX:

News by region:

IFEX Campaigns and Advocacy:

IFEX Email Products:

Opportunities and assistance:

Alert

Body of assassinated journalist found in Durango

(CENCOS/IFEX) - Twenty-four hours after he was kidnapped, the body of journalist Eliseo Barrón Hernández was found on the morning of 26 May 2009 in a plastic bag, in the municipality of Tlahualiko, Durango, adjacent to Coahuila state, in northeastern Mexico. It appears that the journalist had been tortured.

Barrón Hernández covered the police beat for "La Opinión" newspaper, of the media group Milenio-Multimedios Laguna. On 25 May, at 8:05 p.m. (local time), he was kidnapped from his home in the Parque Hundido neighbourhood, Gómez Palacio municipality, in Durango state, by eight masked men who were dressed in black. According to sources consulted by CENCOS, who wish to remain anonymous for security reasons, the journalist was violently abducted in front of his wife and young daughters and forced to get into a Tsuru Nissan vehicle.

The journalist had recently been reporting on a case involving 302 police officers who were dismissed following a scandal surrounding testing. He also reported on allegations that eight of the officers had been involved in kidnappings. In his last article, dated 25 May, Barrón Hernández reported that a police officer, who is the bodyguard of the current director of the Municipal Public Security office, Karlo Castillo García, was also fired after firing his weapon.

The journalist's family filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR). Barrón Hernández had worked in the media for more than 10 years, mainly as a crime reporter.

CENCOS calls on state and federal authorities to establish the motive for the murder and ensure that those responsible are identified and punished.