Journalist murdered in Mexico

Miguel Angel Hernandez:

Unidentified gunmen shot to death the director of a newspaper on Mexico's Gulf coast in an apparent ambush, police reported Saturday, the second shooting attack on Mexican journalists in as many months.

The Friday night shooting of Raul Gibb Guerrero, director of the La Opinion newspaper in the city of Poza Rica, fueled mounting concerns that Mexican journalists are increasingly coming under attack.

Gibb Guerrero was driving up to his home near Poza Rica, a city about 100 miles (160 kms) north of Veracruz city, when witnesses say four gunmen riddled his truck with at least a dozen bullets. He lost control of the truck, and it crashed.

The attackers had apparently lain in wait for Gibb Guerrero in two vehicles, in which they then fled.

At the time of the attack, Gibb Guerrero was returning from the inauguration of a new newspaper in the nearby city of Martinez de la Torre.

He had no body guards or escort, said his sister, Silvia Gibb Guerrero, the managing editor of the La Opinion newspaper. "Journalism is done with courage and decisiveness," she quoted her brother as saying.

Veracruz state police are investigating the crime, but have not yet determined the motive for the killing.

"We are not ruling out that this could have been related to his work, given that he was a combative, outstanding journalist," said state Interior Secretary Reynaldo Escobar Perez.

"He had been a journalist for many years in the northern part of the state and could have ruffled some feathers," Escobar Perez said. "Whoever ordered this crime must be linked to organized crime, because it was carried out with great precision."

"They had it planned, they followed him, it was all carefully prepared," he said, noting police are also considering whether it may have been a botched kidnapping attempt.

It was the latest in a string of violent attacks on journalists in northern Mexico that have drawn expression of concern from press groups.

On April 5, Guadalupe Garcia Escamilla, 39, a radio reporter in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, was shot eight times by a lone assailant as she arrived at work.

She survived four gunshots to her chest and abdomen and four to her legs and arms.

On Feb. 7, unidentified assailants opened fire on the home of a Mexican television journalist in the northern industrial city of Monterrey. The home and a car were riddled with bullets, but nobody was wounded in the attack.

On Friday, the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders expressed "great concern" Friday over the disappearance of a reporter who covered drug smuggling stories in the northern border state of Sonora.

Alfredo Jimenez, a reporter for the newspaper El Imparcial de Hermosillo, was last seen a week ago, and was reported missing after failing to show up for a meeting with a colleague.

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