Former Newspaper Director Murdered in Mexico City

By: The ex-director of one of Mexico's oldest newspapers was found dead in his apartment in the capital Thursday, a week after going public with his book criticizing the federal government, the business community and newspaper employees.

Jose Manuel Nava, 53, who was the last top administrator and editor of the Excelsior newspaper when it was still being run as a cooperative, was found by a cleaning lady who entered his apartment a little before 10 a.m. local time, said Mexico City Police Department spokeswoman Patricia Espinoza.

Authorities at the scene who were not authorized to speak on the record said it appeared that Nava had been stabbed to death. Espinoza said Nava's death was being considered a homicide, but she could not say immediately how he was killed.

One of Mexico's oldest newspapers, Excelsior was founded on March 18, 1917. It experienced its glory days in the 1960s and 1970s under the stewardship of Mexican journalist Julio Scherer Garcia, who -- despite pressure from the government and business community -- made the newspaper the first to criticize the government.

In 1972, the private sector boycotted the paper and in 1976 Scherer and dozens of journalists were expelled from the newspaper by board members. Scherer and several of his allies blamed then-Mexican President Luis Echeverria, who governed from 1970-1976, for arranging his departure.

Nava worked for the newspaper for 30 years, including 16 years as a correspondent in Washington and as newspaper director from February 2002 to December 2005, said Lidia Maldonado, Nava's former secretary, who now works for Excelsior's current director-general, Ernesto Rivera Aguilar.

In January 2003, a private offer to buy the paper from its employees for $150 million fell through, forcing the paper to plead in a full-page ad for donations from the public. The newspaper was sold in January 2006 to radio station owners Grupo Imagen.

Just last week, Nava presented a book in which he blamed government officials, newspaper employees and the business community for the newspaper cooperative's downfall, Mexican news media reported.