Authorities are looking for Mexican reporter Agustín Silva Vázquez who was last seen on Jan. 21 in the state of Oaxaca.
Silva’s car was found abandoned in Morrito near the Oaxaca-Veracruz border on Jan. 22, according to La Silla Rota. The side and back of the car carry the name of newspaper El Sol del Istmo, the newspaper where he and his father work in Tehuantepec.
The last article he wrote, according to La Silla Rota, was about the detention of three people during an operation carried out by the army.
According to La Jornada, the public prosecutor in Oaxaca has opened an investigation into his disappearance. The prosecutor said Silva was last seen on the evening of Jan. 21 outside a bar and his family reporting him missing the next day.
The prosecutor was following three main lines of investigation, but did not give La Jornada details, the newspaper reported.
Colleagues are circulating flyers and requests for information concerning Silva’s disappearance on social media.
The Ombudsman of Human Rights for the People of documented 144 aggressions against journalists in 2017, La Silla Rota reported. The aggressions included verbal attacks, threats, harassment, robbery and damages to homes.
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.
