Newspaper Vanguardia in Coahuila Bombed

A bomb was thrown at the offices of the Vanguardia newspaper in Saltillo, the capital of the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, but no one was injured, the Attorney General’s Office said.

“Two vehicles and a window at the news company were damaged by shrapnel” in Sunday night’s attack, the AG’s office said.

The evidence gathered by investigators does not point to any specific individual or group being behind the attack, the AG’s office said.

Unidentified individuals riding in an automobile threw an “explosive device” at the newspaper’s offices on Venustiano Carranza boulevard in the Republica de Saltillo section of the state capital, the AG’s office said.

There was no comment from Vanguardia representatives about the attack.

Numerous attacks on media outlets and reporters have occurred in Mexico in recent years, with the majority of the incidents blamed on drug traffickers.

Both international press rights groups and Mexican journalists’ associations have repeatedly called on the government to protect freedom of the press and expression.

The U.N. and OAS rapporteurs for freedom of expression criticized the government last August over the “general impunity” that exists in Mexico regarding killings of journalists and demanded protection for members of the media.

“The full enjoyment of freedom of expression in Mexico faces serious and diverse obstacles,” the rapporteurs said.

U.N. special rapporteur Frank La Rue and his Organization of American States counterpart, Catalina Botero, who spent 16 days in Mexico gathering information about threats to journalists, reviewed their findings at the conclusion of their visit to the country on Aug. 24.

The majority of the killings have gone unsolved, prompting journalists to stage protests last year in 14 cities to draw attention to the violence against reporters in Mexico from both the security forces and criminals.

At least 68 journalists have been slain since 2000 in Mexico, the National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, the country’s equivalent of an ombudsman’s office, said.

Thirteen other journalists have gone missing during that time, the CNDH said.

Other organizations report that more than 70 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000.

Source: EFE