By Dean Graber
Jose Luis Romero, a reporter for the Línea Directa radio station who was known for his broadcasts on drug trafficking, was found shot to death Saturday on a highway a few miles from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, where he was kidnapped two weeks ago. The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reuters and the Associated Press have stories in English, and many sources have stories in Spanish.
A state prosecutor in Sinaloa said the journalist, whose death is believed to be linked to organized crime, may have been killed shortly after his kidnapping and buried for 15 days before being exhumed and put on the highway shoulder, his radio station reported. His hands were broken before he was killed, and his body was left in a black bag.
The reporter was kidnapped Dec. 30 by several masked gunmen who forced him into an SUV. The state’s chief police investigator was killed only hours after beginning to investigate his abduction.
Romero had been a reporter for more than 20 years. At his funeral on Sunday, the manager of his radio station urged citizens not to be quiet or passive amid the violence that forces many homes into mourning on a daily basis. Presidents of three journalists associations urged action on the part of journalists and society so his killing would not go unpunished.
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said Romero is the 59th Mexican journalist killed since 2000. Eight journalists have disappeared, and seven media companies have suffered bombings in the same period. The Commission urged the three levels of government to bring the killers to justice and to take actions to guarantee journalists' safety, La Jornada and El Universal say. However, one can only wonder what the Mexican authorities are able and willing to do, and how many more journalists will die while any type of effective action is taken by anyone.
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.
