Mexico

Police reporter kidnapped and murdered

Article published on the 2009-11-03 Latest update 2009-11-03 12:55 TU

Durango state, Mexico
(Photo: WikiMedia Commons)

A journalist specialising in police matters has been kidnapped and killed, execution-style, in Durango state, in northern Mexico. The country is billed by prosecutors as the most dangerous in Latin America for journalists.

Bladimir Antuna Garcia, a reporter for the police section of El Tiempo de Durango newspaper, was found dead just before 9pm local time on Monday (0300 universal time), the Durango attorney general's office said in a statement.

Garcia had been kidnapped by an armed group on his way to work in Durango city, the state capital. According to preliminary reports, the cause of death was "asphyxia by strangulation", but his body also showed bullet wounds to the head and abdomen.

A message was discovered next to the body after an anonymous phone tip off, but its content has not been disclosed.

Garcia is the third journalist killed so far this year in Durango state, adding to the eight killed across the country, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

In 2008, nine journalists were murdered in Mexico, mostly in the northern parts of the country, which is home to feuding drug cartels. The cartels are behind over 14,000 murders in the past three years.