(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced concern about threats that have been made against Juan Torres, a correspondent for the regional newspaper “Noroeste”, in Escuinapa (northeastern state of Sinaloa). The organisation said the threats must be taken all the more seriously since they could be linked to the recent murder of a photojournalist in Escuinapa. “We […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced concern about threats that have been made against Juan Torres, a correspondent for the regional newspaper “Noroeste”, in Escuinapa (northeastern state of Sinaloa). The organisation said the threats must be taken all the more seriously since they could be linked to the recent murder of a photojournalist in Escuinapa.
“We ask that this journalist and his family be given protection and that an investigation get under way as soon as possible,” RSF said in a letter to Sinaloa State Prosecutor Óscar Fidel González Mendívil, while asking to be kept informed of the investigation’s progress.
On 14 December 2004, three men in a black pickup truck without licence plates stopped outside Torres’ home. One of them said to his son, “Tell your father we read his article today and he is the one we are going to silence.” In the article concerned, Torres said Escuinapa’s mayor preferred not to comment on alleged links between former police chief Abel Enrique Zavala and drug traffickers.
Torres’ son was unable to identify the men because they wore hats, stayed inside the pickup and only partially lowered its tinted windows. The newspaper filed a complaint the same day with the Sinaloa state prosecutor and demanded protection for Torres and his family.
On 28 November, Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández, a photographer with the daily “El Debate”, was shot dead by several gunmen in the same city while dining in a restaurant with this family. J. Jesús Blancornelas, editor of the weekly “Zeta”, said the murder could be linked to the existence of photographs taken by Rodríguez showing Zavala, the former police chief, in the company of alleged Sinaloa cartel hit man Antonio Frausto Ocampo during a 20 November party.
A 3 December story in the daily “La Crónica de hoy” reported that police suspected that Frausto Ocampo shot Rodríguez. The paper said police were also looking for two of the three Cedano Ornelas brothers, who were suspected of participating in the killing. One of the brothers, Abraham, aged 20, has already been arrested. Police also found the jeep allegedly used by the killers on a property owned by Frausto Ocampo. The murder weapon has also reportedly been identified.