Mendez 47th Journalist Murdered in Mexico

Radio reporter Luis Daniel Méndez Hernández murdered in Veracruz state, motive unknown

SOURCE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders is dismayed by radio reporter Luis Daniel Méndez Hernández's murder on 23 February 2009 while he was attending a carnival in Huayacocotla, in the southeastern state of Veracruz.

Méndez Hernández, a correspondent for "Enlaces Noticias", a news programme broadcast on several frequencies by the Radiorama Tuxpan news agency, was shot four times in the back."

There are not yet any grounds for concluding that Méndez was killed in connection with his work," Reporters Without Borders said.

"But in view of the great dangers to which the Mexican press is exposed, we join Méndez's colleagues in urging the police and judicial authorities to quickly shed light on the circumstances and motives for this tragedy and to ensure that journalists are protected. We also offer his family and friends our condolences."

The shooting seems to have been the result of a dispute between youngpeople but the officials in charge of the investigation say they are stilllooking out for any signs of a link between Méndez's murder and his work asa journalist.

Méndez was very involved in local politics and was a candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the 2007 municipal elections in Huayacocotla. A link between the murder and his political activities cannot therefore be ruled out either.

The Veracruz state authorities told the regional daily "Cambio" that three suspects had been arrested but the investigation is continuing.

Méndez, age 24 and the father of a one-year-old child, worked as a correspondent in Xalapa, the capital city of Veracruz state, and in the State Arbitration Commission's press department in the city of Veracruz. He went to Huayacocotla to celebrate the carnival with his family.

According to the tally kept by the National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, CNDH), Méndez is the 47th journalist to be murdered in Mexico since 2000. This figure includes both journalists who were clearly killed in connection with their work and those who were killed for unclear motives. He is the second journalist to be killed since the beginning of the year in Mexico.

Photographer Jean Paul Ibarra, of the local daily "El Correo", was the victim of a contract-style killing on 13 February in the southern state of Guerrero (see 16 February release - http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30319 ).

For further information on the Ibarra case, see:

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/100874

For further information, contact Benoît Hervieu, RSF, 47, rue Vivienne,75002 Paris, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 68, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51,e-mail: americas@rsf.org, Internet: http://www.rsf.org/