Monday, July 12, 2010
Journalist Shot Dead in the Mexican State of Michoacán
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders condemns
the murder of Hugo Alfredo Olivera Cartas, a journalist based in Apatzingán, in the central state of Michoacán, whose body
was found July 6. He had been shot three times. Olivera’s death brings the number of journalists killed in Mexico since
the start of the year to eight, or perhaps nine.
Aged 27, Olivera was the editor
of the Apatzingán-based El Día de Michoacán daily and the ADN news agency, [plus
he] was the local correspondent of the state-wide La Voz de Michoacán daily. According
to local press reports, he went missing on the evening of 5 July after getting a phone call and setting off to cover a reported
accident.
His body was found with three
gunshot wounds to the head in his pickup truck at about 3 a.m. The office of the Michoacán state attorney-general reported
later that it had learned that the offices of El Día de Michoacán had been broken
into and computer hard disks containing all of its files had been stolen.
Olivera, who was also a correspondent
of the Quadratín news agency, had specialized in covering crime in the Apatzingán area for the past two years. Married and
the father of children aged 5 years and 5 months, he reportedly called his wife shortly after leaving the newspaper and told
her to “take care of the children.”
Although the motive has not yet
been determined, there are good reasons for thinking it was linked to his work as a journalist. Local press reports quoted
Michoacán governor Leonel Godoy Rangel as saying it had the hallmarks of an organized crime killing.
Last February, Olivera filed
a complaint with the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) accusing members of the federal police of physically attacking
him while he was covering a murder.
His murder brings the total number
of journalists killed in Mexico since 2000 to 65. Another 11 journalists have gone missing since 2003.
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Reporters Without Borders, July 7, 2010
