{"id":167,"date":"2011-03-30T18:53:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T13:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iepf-ngo.org\/en\/television-host-reporter-killed-in-mexico\/"},"modified":"2011-03-30T18:53:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T13:53:00","slug":"television-host-reporter-killed-in-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iepf-ngo.org\/en\/television-host-reporter-killed-in-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Television Host, Reporter Killed in Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Mexican journalists have been killed in Monterrey in the northern state of Nuevo Le\u00f3n in a murder that appears to be tied to organized crime.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Luis \u201cLa Gata\u201d Cerda Mel\u00e9ndez, 33, host of the \u201cEl Club\u201d program on national TV channel Televisa, and Luis Emanuel Ru\u00edz Carrillo, 20, a reporter for daily \u201cLa Prensa\u201d, based in the neighbouring state of Coahuila, were shot after being kidnapped Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

Cerda and Ru\u00edz were leaving the Televisa studios in Monterrey with Cerda\u2019s cousin, Juan Roberto G\u00f3mez, when gunmen forced them into a sport utility vehicle.<\/p>\n

The bodies of Ru\u00edz and G\u00f3mez were discovered Friday morning near a freeway. Police later found Cerda\u2019s body with his hands bound and a gunshot wound to his head.<\/p>\n

Cerda\u2019s body was located near graffiti that said \u201cStop cooperating with Los Zetas,\u201d a drug cartel that has been battling with the rival Gulf Cartel for control of the city. The graffiti was reportedly signed by the Gulf Cartel.<\/p>\n

Television crews were filming Cerda\u2019s body Friday morning when an armed individual appeared and stole the body. Authorities have opened an investigation into police officers on the scene who failed to stop the removal of the body, which was located later Friday.<\/p>\n

International Press Institute (IPI) Director Alison Bethel McKenzie said: \u201cWe are saddened by these killings, and it is profoundly disturbing that the murder of journalists in Mexico continues unabated. We call on Mexican authorities to aggressively investigate these crimes, and all other attacks on and murders of journalists. How many voices will it take before these ruthless killings \u2013 and the attack on press freedom and the people\u2019s right to know that they represent \u2013 are stopped?\u201d<\/p>\n

The murders were the second and third killings of journalists in Mexico this year. Engineer Rodolfo Ochoa was shot to death in February by masked intruders at a television studio in Coahuila as he tried to telephone colleagues for help when the intruders burst into the facilities.<\/p>\n

Twelve journalists were killed in Mexico in 2010, making it the second most deadly country in the world for journalists that year following Pakistan, which saw 15 murders.<\/p>\n

\n\/\/www.freemedia.at\/singleview\/5412\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journalists Slain in Triple Murder Reportedly Attributed to Drug Cartel<\/b><\/p>\n

A police detective stands next to a spray-painted message at a crime scene where the slain body of Jose Luis Cerda Mel\u00e9ndez was found in the municipality of Guadalupe, neighbouring Monterrey on 25 March, 2011. REUTERS\/Tomas Bravo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iepf-ngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iepf-ngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iepf-ngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iepf-ngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iepf-ngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iepf-ngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iepf-ngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iepf-ngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iepf-ngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}