Pablo Ruelas Barraza was apparently executed by two gunmen who first tried to kidnap him.
(RSF/IFEX) – 14 June 2011 – Reporter Pablo Ruelas Barraza was found shot to death in Huatabampo (Sonora state, northwest Mexico) on 13 June, apparently executed by two gunmen who first tried to kidnap him. Ruelas Barraza, 38, worked for the regional dailies “El Diario del Yaqui” in Huatabampo and “El Regional de Sonora” in Hermosillo. The past month has been grim for the country’s journalists.
Local media said Ruelas Barraza, a police beat reporter, had received death threats. Reporters Without Borders called on investigators to consider that he might have been killed because of his work and warned that focusing on his previous brushes with the law must not be allowed to interfere with the inquiry.
The organisation said the killing again raised the issue of when the federal government was going to apply the new agreement on protecting journalists signed in November 2010.
A total of 74 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000 and 13 others have disappeared. The government’s war against drug-traffickers has cost about 40,000 lives since December 2006.
