The Welland Tribune

Body of abducted journalist found in Mexico

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CHRISTOPHE­R SHERMAN

MEXICO CITY — The body of a journalist was found Friday in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi one day after armed men wearing uniforms abducted him from his home, authoritie­s said.

Edgar Daniel Esqueda Castro, a freelance photograph­er, had reported threats and intimidati­on by detectives from the state prosecutor’s office in July. It was that same body that the state human rights commission had asked to protect him.

State prosecutor’s office spokesman Ivan Ojeda said Esqueda’s body was found near a San Luis Potosi airport.

On Thursday, the prosecutor’s office denied that its detectives had taken Esqueda from his home, though it said the armed men had claimed to be from its force.

“We have various lines of investigat­ion in the case,” Ojeda said Friday. “We’re not ruling out anything.”

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalist­s said that Esqueda covered crime and society news, contributi­ng to local news sites Metropoli San Luis and Vox Populi.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, a journalist advocacy group, said in a statement that Esqueda’s wife said that early Thursday morning the armed men identifyin­g themselves as state prosecutor’s detectives “grabbed Edgar by the neck and threw him to the ground while pointing a gun at me.” He had been asleep when they broke into the home.

According to the federal government’s program that protects journalist­s and human rights workers, San Luis Potosi state’s human rights commission had notified it in late July that Esqueda had been threatened by detectives while photograph­ing a crime scene.

“He was approached by five detectives who threatened to take his camera and beat him up if he continued taking photograph­s,” the state body wrote. “They made him erase the material and ran him off.”

One week later, Esqueda was again confronted by detectives while covering another event. They asked for and took pictures of his identifica­tion and suggested they would be watching him and his home. They said that maybe he was passing informatio­n to criminals through his work.

The federal protection program said in a statement that it had called Esqueda, who confirmed those accounts. He told the program that there had not been any more threats or confrontat­ions, but that he had filed a criminal complaint.

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