Mexican journo’s burnt body found

Police in Mexico found the burned remains of a journalist who was kidnapped in May – the sixth reporter killed this year in the country, a state prosecutor said.

With the grisly find, Salvador Adame, the head of a local TV station in the state of Michoacan, becomes the latest name on the list of more than 100 journalists killed in Mexico since 2000.

More than 90% of these killings remain unpunished.

Adame, 44, was surrounded by gunmen and abducted in the western town of Nueva Italia on May 18.

Police and soldiers found his charred remains four weeks later, dumped at a spot known as Devil’s Gully, along a local road, said state prosecutor Jose Martin Godoy.

“DNA samples have confirmed these remains are those of Adame,” Godoy said.

Adame was the owner of local television channel Canal 6 in Michoacan, a region hit hard by Mexico’s epidemic of gang violence.

His kidnapping came two days after Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had vowed to strengthen protection for journalists and prosecute those who attack them.

That announcement was in response to the killing of award-winning crime reporter Javier Valdez on May 15.

All six journalists killed had been reporting on crime gangs and government corruption.

Adame had been investigating a petrol station he suspected to be a front for organised crime, in collusion with the authorities, a colleague said. – AFP