Moises Sanchez: Decapitated body of abducted Mexican journalist found in a ravine
Reports say former police officer has admitted to killing
Andrew Buncombe
New York
Monday 26 January 2015
The decapitated body of a journalist who was abducted by armed men three weeks ago has been discovered in the east of Mexico. Officials claimed that a former police officer had admitted carrying the killing of the reporter at the request of the town’s mayor.
Officials said the mutilated body of Moises Sanchez was discovered on Saturday on the outskirts of the town of Medellin de Bravo. Mr Sanchez was a social activist who also published a weekly newspaper, La Union, which covered local government corruption and violent deaths, as well as printing citizen's complaints, according to the Associated Press.
The disappearance on January 2 of the reporter had sparked protests in the state of Veracruz, where at least 11 journalists have been killed since December 2010. It is one of the most perilous places in Mexico for reporters to work.
"Veracruz authorities have a history of denigrating the activities of local journalists and a miserable record of impunity in cases of crimes against journalists," Carlos Lauría, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said at the time of his disappearance.
Mexico has been rocked by the disappearance of 43 students in south-western Guerrero state
Mr Sanchez’z relatives said he regularly received death threats. In the days before he went missing he had been writing about local self defence groups that had been formed to counter the growing levels of criminal violence.
Veracruz state prosecutor Luis Angel Bravo announced on Sunday that a former police officer had admitted to killing the reporter and claimed to have done so at the instigation of the town’s mayor, Omar Cruz, who frequently appeared in Mr Sanchez’s report.
Mr Bravo said five other people had been involved in he killing of the reporter, whose body was then thrown into a ravine. There has yet to be a comment on the claims from Mr Cruz, the Associated Press said, and he could not be reached for comment. At the time the reporter went missing, the mayor held a press conference to deny any involvement.
Reports say he has immunity from prosecution because of his position as mayor, but Mr Bravo said he will ask the state legislature to withdraw the immunity so that he can be charged.
After Mr Sanchez's abduction, authorities brought in 36 of Medellin de Bravo's police officers to give statements. But so far only three have been implicated in the case, including the deputy director.
Local media have compared the case to that of 43 students who went missing from the town of Iguala in south-western Guerrero state four months ago.
Investigators in the Iguala case said municipal police officers confessed to handing the students over to a gang which killed them.
Like the officer in the case of Moises Sanchez, the municipal police officers in Iguala alleged they were acting on the orders of the town's mayor, Jose Luis Abarca. Mr Abarca, who denies the charges, is being held in a high-security jail in the capital, Mexico City.
The BBC reported that the disappearance of the students triggered a series of mass protests by Mexicans who said they were fed up with high levels of corruption and collusion between local authorities, the police and criminal gangs.
Relatives of the 43 students are planning to march to Zocalo square in Mexico City this week to demand more be done to find them. The remains of only one of the students have been identified so far.
