The Attorney General of the state of Mexico announced the arrest of a violent carjacking gang that was supposedly responsible for the killing of the journalist Ángel Castillo Corona, a columnist for the Toluca newspaper Portal, and his 16 year-old son, Ángel Castillo Téllez, the paper reported.
Attorney Alfredo Castillo Cervantes said that carjacking was the motive for the Jul. 3, 2011, attack, not Castillo's profession as a journalist. Minors as young as 16 and 17 were arrested for the crime, as well as older perpetrators like 28 year-old Samuel Peña Gómez, 35 year-old Tomás Hernández Sosa, and 45 year-old Giovanni Hernández Sosa, according to a report by Noticias MVS.
Alfredo Castillo announced that the suspects stole cars on highways bordering the states of Morelos and Mexico City, including the municipalities of Oculian, Xalatlaco and Santiago Tianguistenco, among others. The gang would close the highway with rocks and logs, and intentionally hit the vehicle to force it to stop. Portal reported there were 44 cases of carjackings in the region that met this description.
Several international organizations, including UNESCO and Reporters without Borders, supported demands from journalists in the state of Mexico to accelerate the investigation and pressure the state's attorney to report on the homicide.
