By Dean Graber
Evaristo Pacheco Solís, a reporter for the weekly “Visión Informativa” (Informative Vision), was found shot to death Friday near the state capital, Chilpancingo, Guerrero, in southern Mexico, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports.
Pacheco had been kidnapped on an earlier occasion, and his death is believed to be linked to drug traffickers, the International Federation of Journalists says (Spanish). Pacheco was killed only a day after the state of Guerrero’s justice system was challenged by the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders for the credibility of its investigation into the Jan. 29 killing of journalist Jorge Ochoa Martínez, editor in chief of El Sol de la Costa newspaper of Guerrero.
Pacheco's death Friday preceded 28 killings early Saturday that took place in Guerrero state alone as part of escalating confrontations between drug gangs, Italy’s ANSA news service and Spain’s El País report. Those deaths have been largely overshadowed in U.S. media by reports from northern Mexico that three people with ties to the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez were killed over the weekend.
Five journalists remained missing in northern Mexico on Friday, Alfredo Corchado wrote for The Dallas Morning News.
"In all, eight journalists were abducted during the past three weeks in the Reynosa area, which borders Texas and has been engulfed by a new wave of drug cartel violence. One journalist died, and two were released with a warning to leave the area," he writes.
The Mexican government is getting more criticism for its inability to guarantee freedom of expression and protect journalists, Corchado says.
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.
