Journalist killed in Mexican state

Ag AFP

COATZACOALCOS, Mexico: A Mexican journalist was shot and killed on Wednesday in a state plagued by drug cartel violence, a committee to protect reporters said.

Leobardo Vazquez Atzin, 48, was gunned down outside his house in eastern Veracruz state, said the State Commission to Aid and Protect Journalists. Veracruz is Mexico’s most dangerous state for reporters.

Vazquez Atzin had not reported death threats to the committee, according to its president Ana Laura Perez. But colleagues of the reporter said he was in fact living under threats from the underworld.

A police report seen by AFP said Vazquez Atzin’s wife was inside their home when she heard three or four gunshots. She came outside and found him dead on the ground at a taco stand he ran beside their house.

Vazquez Atzin worked for the newspaper Opinion in the town of Poza Rica until late last year. A press advocacy group, Articulo 19, says 12 reporters were murdered in Mexico in 2017. With more than 100 reporters killed since 2000, Mexico is ranked as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists. And Veracruz is the most perilous state, with some 20 murdered.