Biodun.BBC: Veracruz state

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Journalist killed by gunmen in Mexican state of Veracruz

AUGUST 24, 2017 / 05H:07 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Renee Celeste and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, Mexico City

MEXICO CITY - Gunmen shot dead a reporter in the violent Mexican state of Veracruz on Tuesday, authorities said, bringing to at least nine the number of journalists killed in the country this year.

Reporter Candido Rios and two other men died after being shot by the unknown assailants in the municipality of Hueyapan in the south of Veracruz, local police said in a statement.

Murders have risen significantly in Mexico during the past couple of years, and 2017 is on course to be the bloodiest year on record, underlining the failure of President Enrique Pena Nieto's government to tame the violence.

Aggravating the problem for Pena Nieto have been attacks on journalists, which have prompted some world leaders to express concerns about the matter during visits to Mexico.

Rios, who worked at the newspaper Diario Acayucan, had reported threats against his life and was registered on a national program to protect journalists, said Jorge Morales, head of a local media protection group known as the CEAPP.

According to a tally kept by Article 19, a freedom of expression advocacy group, eight journalists had been killed in Mexico during 2017 before the death of Rios.

A spokesman for the state attorney general's office in Veracruz said it was investigating the killing of Rios but declined to give details over what motivated the attack.

Veracruz, a state in the Gulf of Mexico with important trafficking routes fought over by drug gangs, has become notorious for the murder of journalists in the past few years.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Mexico seeks extradition of ex-governor

17 April 2017 - 07H20 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Renee Celeste and Biodun Iginla, France24, GUATEMALA CITY

GUATEMALA CITY -

Mexico has asked Guatemala to extradite a fugitive former governor suspected of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars, officials said.

Javier Duarte, of Veracruz state, was arrested around 8:00 pm at a luxury hotel in the tourist resort town of Panajachel on Saturday, Guatemalan police said.

Mexico filed its extradition request later that night.

"Now there is a 60-day period in which bilateral extradition issues are looked at. Then the judge will determine if the necessary conditions are met and that he should be extradited," Mexico's top prosecutor Omar Garcia said at a briefing at Mexico's embassy in Guatemala City.

Duarte had been staying at the four-star hotel for at least two days, where he paid with cash, used a false name and was accompanied by his wife, deputy director of Guatemala's police Stu Velasco told Milenio television.

The agents handcuffed the ex-governor, who at the time of his capture was wearing a blue shirt, a dark vest and glasses. He had gained weight since fleeing six months ago.

Duarte, 43, was handed over to a counternarcotics court.

Mexican authorities issued an arrest warrant against Duarte in October for his alleged responsibility in organized crime and embezzlement. Interpol also issued an international arrest warrant against him.

Duarte, of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), resigned last year before the end of his term and then went into hiding.

Duarte is not the only Mexican ex-governor to face justice: Tomas Yarrington, governor of the northern state of Tamaulipas between 1999 and 2005, was arrested a week ago in Italy for ties to drug trafficking.