Photojournalist found dead after hiding in Mexico City

Another photojournalist from Veracruz who has fled to Mexico City told AFP that journalists face “a lot of pressure from the government” in the eastern state, speaking on condition of anonymity at the vigil for Espinosa.

Article 19 on Saturday called the killing of Espinosa a new level of violence against journalists in Mexico, as he was first to be killed while in exile in Mexico City.

Ruben Espinosa was found dead among five others in Mexico’s capital city on Friday. Three of them had lived in the apartment and the fourth was a domestic employee, the city prosecutor’s office said. All five of them had been shot in the head, prosecutors say.

The body of Ruben Espinosa, who collaborated with Proceso and other media, was identified by a family member at the morgue Saturday afternoon, Proceso reported, adding that he had two gunshot wounds.

Veracruz is considered one of the most risky Mexican states for journalists to work in. Journalists and activists are exposing many of Mexico’s struggles with corruption and impunity and a sense – reinforced by the escape of the nation’s biggest druglord – that everything is for sale.

Espinosa had been beaten by Veracruz state police in 2013 and was recently the target of threats and intimidation, colleagues said.

Espinosa becomes the 42nd journalist murdered in Mexico since 2010 for reasons related to work, according to free-speech watchdog Artículo 19.

Mexico Metropolis officers stated Sunday they’re pursuing all strains of investigation within the dying of Ruben Espinosa, whose tortured physique was discovered together with 4 slain ladies in an condo in Mexico’s capital.

“I feel there is a disdain toward investigating the journalistic motives or even motives that had to do with his displacement”, said Article 19’s Ramirez. “I was forced to leave because I was being threatened”, the freelance correspondent said in what would be his final interview, which aired on TV on July 9. “But the exact theme is that he was at risk and after a month he was assassinated”.

Ramirez confirmed that Espinosa had not sought official protection or help from the federal government agency created to protect journalists and human rights workers who are under threat.

The other four, all women, included human rights activist Nadia Vera. “These are coincidences that can’t be discarded by saying he was in the wrong place at the wrong time”.

In June, Espinosa told Article 19 that he noticed he was being followed in several locations and given threatening looks. “Displaced journalists used to return to Mexico Metropolis as an island of safety”. Seven other journalists were killed in unclear circumstances and at least three journalists have disappeared in the state in the same time period. “Now there is no place to go, no place to run”, an anonymous journalist lamented to the AP. Months earlier, he’d angered Mr Duarte with an unflattering photo of the governor on the cover of Mexico’s main newsweekly, Proceso.