Mexico: arrest in reporter’s death

Authorities have arrested five suspects in the killing of a journalist in the northern Mexican city of Torre贸n, Coahuila, the federal Prosecutor General’s office announced June 12. Hooded gunmen abducted the journalist, Eliseo Barr贸n, 35, from his house on May 25, and his body was found the next day. He covered the police for the local newspaper La Opini贸n, and had written about a police corruption scandal shortly before he was killed. The Prosecutor General’s office said the five men had been stopped by soldiers who found drugs and weapons in their car. One of the men, Israel S谩nchez Jaimes, confessed to being part of the Zetas narco gang and said he killed Barr贸n after the group had abducted him. Mexico’s drug war has made the country one of the most dangerous in the world for reoporters. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 27 reporters have been killed since 2000 and another eight are missing. (NYT, June 12)

See our last posts on Mexico’s narco wars and attacks on the press.

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