The decapitated body of a journalist from the El Mundo newspaper in Veracruz was found on Wednesday in an area of great violence in the eastern Mexican state, police and freedom of expression organizations reported.
The decapitated body of a journalist from the El Mundo newspaper in Veracruz was found on Wednesday in an area of great violence in the eastern Mexican state, police and freedom of expression organizations reported.
"I condemn the cowardly murder of journalist Julio Valdivia (...). In coordination with the state attorney general's office, we will use all resources to find those responsible," said the security secretary and chief of the police, Hugo Gutiérrez, in a statement.
Fifth journalist killed in Mexico in 2020
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on the authorities to investigate the link between the 41-year-old journalist's crime and his professional activities.
Julio Valdivia is the fifth journalist killed in Mexico in 2020, according to RSF.
"That all avenues of investigation be exhausted, especially those that have to do with his journalistic work because he worked in an area marked by violence," Balbina Flores, RSF representative in Mexico, told AFP.
The journalist's body, as well as a motorbike belonging to him, were found on a railway line in a mountainous area in the municipality of Tezonapa, according to information published by El Mundo.
Julio Valdivia "worked in a complicated area where there are criminal groups, we have to investigate if he had reported something that bothered these criminal groups, this is a fundamental line," Ana told AFP Laura Pérez, President of the Commission for the Protection of Journalists in Veracruz.
According to El Mundo's Twitter account, the journalist on Tuesday covered a clash between police and criminal suspects in the municipality of Cosolapa.