Murders Of Three Circ Workers Followed By Death Threat Against Editor

By: E&P Staff Three circulation employees were murdered Monday afternoon as they were transporting copies of the El Imparcial del Istmo daily in the Mexico state of Oaxaca. Hours later, an anonymous caller told the paper's regional editor that he was "next."

According to local newspapers and the free press groups the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) in New York City and Article 19 in London, the three were driving a newspaper delivery van along a highway about 1 p.m. when an SUV with tinted windows chased and blocked their way.

Individuals emerged from the SUV and shot the van's driver Mateo Cortes Martinez, and delivery employees Agustin Lopez Nolasco and Flor Vasquez Lopez.

Soon afterwards, the paper's regional director, Gonzalo Dominguez, received the anonymous death threat. The paper's deputy director, Luis David Quintana, was quoted in the local press as saying El Imparcial had received several death threats warning the paper to muzzle its coverage of local drug traffickers.

Mexico is one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists, and the Oaxaca state has been the scene of violence against media workers in the last year.

In August, Alberto Fernandez Portilla was shot and wounded outside his home in the city of Salina Cruz by an unidentified gunmen who warned him "not to mess with our leader," CPJ noted. Fernandez is editor of the weekly El Semanario and a columnist for the daily El Sol del Istmo in Salina Cruz and El Sur in Juchitan. He had been reporting on corruption involving government-owned oil and gas monopoly Pemex and its local union in Oaxaca, CPJ said.

Nearly a year ago, on Oct. 27, 2006, Brad Will, an Illinois native filming a documentary for Indymedia New York City, was shot and killed in the city of Oaxaca during violence between anti-government protesters and armed plainclothes men believed to be working for the state government.