2 February 2010

Alert

Editor killed in Guerrero




Incident details

Killed

Jorge Ochoa Martínez, Editor

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(CEPET/IFEX) - Jorge Ochoa Martínez, editor of the "El Sol de la Costa" newspaper, was killed on the night of 29 January 2010 by a gunshot to the head, outside a restaurant in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, Guerrero, in southern Mexico. Authorities have not identified a clear motive for the murder.

According to information released by the state's public safety secretariat (la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública del Estado) on 30 January, Ochoa's body was found after an anonymous call was received by police at 10:15 p.m. saying that there was a body in a car parked between the Mina and Plan de Ayutla streets near the El Charco de las Ranas restaurant in Ayutla.

State and municipal police officers found Ochoa with a 38 caliber gunshot wound to his right cheek. They also discovered that the car in which the body was found did not belong to the editor and that there was a temporary permit inside for someone named Inés Villanueva Ceballos.

Valentín Diaz Reyes, director of the Guerrero Ministerial Investigative Police, confirmed that preliminary investigations are underway and inquiries have begun in the hopes of locating those responsible. He added that witnesses have hesitated to share their accounts of events, so the only fact they have is that the presumed assassins left the scene in a white Nissan Tsuru. He also said that there is no information that leads police to believe that this murder was connected to organized crime.

The National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, CNDH) has condemned the crime and announced that it will follow the official investigations into the homicide. "This national body raises its voice to demand that authorities carry out justice and do not perpetuate impunity in crimes against journalists", said the CNDH.

Ochoa was the director of Social Communications at the Ayutla town hall under the current administration and was seen for the last time at Copala Mayor Carlos Guerrero Tejada's birthday celebrations.

Source:

Center for Journalism and Public Ethics


 

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Updates to this story

State attorney identifies journalist's murderer, but family has doubts about the investigation 24 March 2010 Two suspects arrested in journalist's murder, but motive remains questionable 12 March 2010

Mexico

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