A reporter for a weekly investigative crime magazine was knocked off his motorcycle and run over on Tuesday by unidentified assailants who then shot him at point-blank range with a 9mm handgun, state authorities said.
Roberto Marcos Garcia, 50, chief reporter for the weekly Testimonio magazine in Veracruz, was shot four times in the head and other parts of his body along a highway 8km northeast of that city, the state attorney general's office said.
No arrests have been made.
Garcia had written investigative reports on crimes ranging from drug trafficking to auto theft, as well as the alleged corruption of local officials. The magazine was distributed throughout the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.
Colleagues of Garcia said that he told them recently he was being followed and had received threats, but refused an offer of police protection.
"He never stopped and that is what led him to his death," said Testimonio photographer Raul Alfonso Rivera.
State Deputy Attorney General Marco Antonio Aguilar said it was too soon to speculate on possible motives for the slaying, but he said that at least two people were involved in Garcia's death.
Garcia was killed while returning from an information-gathering trip to the state's coast guard, Rivera said.
Just meters from his body, the killers abandoned a Chrysler PT Cruiser that police later determined had been stolen in Mexico City on May 31.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese