Mexican Journo covering drug trafficking murdered - Commission set-up

Report By: Nina Rai

Veracruz, Mexico, 30 April, 2012:

The government of the eastern state of Veracruz, Mexico has announced the setting up of a special commission to solve the murder of journalist Regina Martinez, official sources in Mexico informed today Monday, April 30.

Regina Martinez, a correspondent with Proceso magazine has been found apparently strangled to death. Her body was discovered inside the bathroom of her house in Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz, on Saturday, April 28.

Martinez had worked for numerous media houses, in a career spanning more than three decades. The senior journalist appeared to have been severely beaten up and strangled. It was on receiving an anonymous tip off about a dead body, that emergency services personnel found Martinez’s body around 6 p.m inside her house.

Javier Duarte, Veracruz Governor immediately ordered the setting up of a special commission to determine who killed the reporter. The Governor was quoted by La Jornada newspaper as telling Proceso Executives and the Martinez family in a statement that the commission would help in shedding light on the reprehensible act. Duarte also expressed his shock and outrage at the reporter's murder and pledged all the effort and the work of justice so that the crime did not go unpunished.

Meanwhile, a statement released by the local government states that the commission will include reporter Jorge Carrasco, who is a colleague of Martinez working for Proceso magazine. A request will also be made to get support from the Attorney General's Office, and State and National Human Rights Commissions.

Statistics with regard to media personnel in Mexico is indeed alarming. This Latin American nation is considered the world’s second most dangerous country for the media fraternity. Nearly 80 scribes have been found murdered and many more have disappeared since 2000. Last year itself nine journalists were found murdered in Mexico, informed the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), in a statement released in January.

Journalists like Martinez are considered a thorn in the thriving drug smuggling business, as the lady wrote often about sensitive issues like drug trafficking. Naturally, journalists like her have been increasingly targeted in recent years by the drug trafficking cartel and other organized crime gangs, particularly in northern Mexico, resulting in dangerous consequences.

Source: News XS