Contributors to the Mexican blog "El 5antuario" (The Sanctuary) released a YouTube video and an online statement reporting that the blog's creator, Ruy Salgado or "El 5anto," had disappeared, reported the organization Reporters Without Border (RSF in French) on Friday, Sept. 14.
The website's contributors reported that they had heard no news of El 5anto since Saturday, Sept. 8 and allowed another 48 hours to pass before before announcing his disappearance to Mexican authorities and revealing his true identity on Friday, Sept. 14, according to the news agency EFE. Salgado's supporters said he planned to attend an event where the Leftist ex-presidential candiate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was scheduled to appear in the capital, Mexico City, but he never showed.
In the video, one of the contributors claimed that Salgado received threats for criticizing the government and political parties in his coverage of the student movement Yo Soy 132 during the recent presidential elections in Mexico, according to the website Terra.
Because of security concerns, contributors to El 5antuario are anonymous. Bloggers publish under pseudonyms, appear in videos wearing lucha libre masks to cover their faces, and do not know one another personally, according to RSF.
Since Friday, Sept. 14, Mexican Twitter users have started a campaign with the hashtag #DondeEstaRuy5algado (Where Is Ruy 5algado) to find the missing blogger.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
