Veracruz: journalist found beheaded, the 135th reporter killed since 2010, Veracruz is most lethal state

Chivis Martinez  Borderland Beat  TY Gus  Zeta Tijuana

The lifeless body of journalist Julio Valdivia Rodríguez, a “Nota Roja” [crime]reporter for the newspaper El Mundo de Córdoba, was found this Wednesday, September 9, in the municipality of Tezonapa, in the central mountainous area of ​​the state of Veracruz, which borders Oaxaca.

According to police reports cited by local media, the journalist was beheaded.

The remains were abandoned near the railroad tracks between the communities of Motzorongo and Paraíso, where the motorcycle on which he was traveling was also found.

“El Mundo newspaper laments the loss of our valued colleague and journalist Julio Valdivia Rodrígez, who was cowardly assassinated this afternoon.

We express our condolences to his entire family”, the newspaper published in his accounts of the various social networks.

Rio Doce:

The 44-year-old reporter devoted himself full-time to journalism. He had been working for El Mundo for about five years and had previously worked at El Buen Tono, according to Aristegui Noticias.

According to other journalists, the area of ​​the Tezonapa municipality was considered risky, so few dared to report from that region, especially due to pressure from criminal groups to censor journalists.

Julio Valdivia had been threatened months ago, however, in an official statement the State Commission for Attention and Protection for Journalists (CEAPP) indicated that it was unaware of the situation because no previous incident had been reported to him:

"He worked without special protection measures, because until the moment of the attack he had not reported to this Commission any situation or threat that he considered a risk to his safety."

Article 19:

From 2000 to date, ARTICLE 19 has documented 135 murders of journalists in Mexico, possibly related to their work. Of the total, 124 are men and 11 are women.

Of these, 47 were registered during the previous term of President Enrique Peña Nieto and 15 in the current term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The government of Javier Duarte, which began in December 2010 and ended on November 30, 2016 in Veracruz, has been the most lethal for communicators: 17 journalists have been killed (including photojournalist Rubén Espinosa). This state has the highest record of murders of journalists, with 30.

The most recent case is that of Julio Valdivia , murdered on September 9, 2020 in Veracruz.

Note:

 Sorry this is late posting.  Another contributor had it in draft but is unable to post.