texas-moody

U.S. State Department investigating disappearance of Texas freelance journalist in Mexico

The U.S. Department of State announced that it has started an investigation into the disappearance of a Mexican American journalist who has reportedly gone missing in Mexico, reported the Fox affiliate in San Antonio.

Freelance photojournalist Zane Alejandro Plemmons Rosales was last seen on May 21 in the city of Nuevo Laredo on the border with Texas, according to family members.

Plemmons worked as a police reporter in Mazatlán in western Mexico, for the newspaper “La I” where he covered news about the Sinaloa cartel, reported the newspaper El Debate. En 2010, the journalist was threatened and so moved to San Antonio, Texas, according to the newspaper El Universal.

Authorities in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, where Nuevo Laredo is located, also said that they are investigating the journalist's disappearance, according to W Radio.

Besides Plemmons, the Mexican journalist Federico Manuel García Contreras has been missing for a month in Mexico. Neither of these cases is considered a kidnapping as the families have not received random demands. Another 14 journalists have been reported missing in the last seven years in Mexico.

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.