Mexico
Newspaper delivery workers murderedPosted Oct 20 2007
On Oct. 8, assailants in an Equinox SUV chased down and blocked the path of a newspaper delivery van marked with the logo of Oaxaca daily El Imparcial del Istmo.
The delivery van had been driving on the highway around 1 p.m. after picking up newspapers from the Tehuantepec bus station (roughly 155 miles southwest of the city of Oaxaca). Gunmen exited the SUV, shot and killed the van’s driver Mateo Cortés Martínez and delivery workers Agustín López Nolasco and Flor Vásquez López.
Editor and Publisher, a magazine covering North American media, reported El Imparcial del Istmo’s regional director, Gonzalo Dominguez, received an anonymous death later that day.
El Imparcial del Istmo’s director, Benjamín Fernández Pichardo, said that the regional edition of the newspaper would continue to circulate despite threats.
The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a news alert the following day, noting that the paper had received numerous threatening e-mails and letters relating to its critical coverage of local drug trafficking gangs.