By Ingrid Bachmann
Mexico's National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) condemned the killing of newspaper columnist Enrique Villicaña Palomares and demanded investigation and punishment, La Jornada reports. Villicaña, a commentator for La Voz de Michoacán and former official in MIchoacán state, was found over the weekend in the western Mexican state, EFE and the Associated Press report.
Similar demands came from the International Press Institute (IPI) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Villicaña, who also worked as a notary public and academic, was kidnapped last week. His body appeared with stab wounds Saturday in Morelia, the state capital, AP explains.
This year alone, 78 people have been assassinated in the state of Michoacán, and other journalists have disappeared. In Villicaña's case, the motive for the crime remained unknown, but the IPI said the columnist had denounced several attacks by armed groups against the indigenous Purépecha group, to which he belonged.
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.
