Abducted Mexican journalist found shot dead, second murder in past month

Mexico: Abducted journalist found shot dead, second murder in past month
Published on Friday 26 August 2011. – Reporters without Borders

Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns the murder of Humberto Millán Salazar, a journalist based in Culiacán, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, who edited the online newspaper A-Discussion and presented a programme on Radio Formula. His body was found yesterday, a day after his abduction in Culiacán. He had been shot in the head.

Gunmen kidnapped Millán on 24 August together with his handicapped brother, who was released at Millán’s request. His body was discovered yesterday morning in Campo Morelia, 10 km north of the city. The Sinaloa prosecutor’s office said measures have been taken to protect his relatives and some of his colleagues.

The murder is being investigated by a team set up by Sinaloa state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera Gómez in coordination with the federal prosecutor-general’s office. The state prosecutor’s office confirmed that an investigation was under way but declined to say what hypotheses it was working on.

Reporters Without Borders urges the authorities not to rule out the possibility that Millán was killed in connection with his work. He was frequent critic of the local authorities and, on the eve of his abduction, had published an article about the municipal government’s management of its accounts in A-Discusión.

He was the second journalist to be murdered in Mexico in the past month. …more