Updated 01:12 AM EDT, Tue, Mar 19, 2024

Abducted Mexican Journalist's Corpse Found Along a Highway

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The naked and bound body of an abducted Mexican journalist was found along a highway this week.

The slain Anabel Flores Salazar was kidnapped from her home near the city of Orizaba in Veracruz on Monday, Feb. 8, according to a Puebla state official who chose to remain anonymous, the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, reported. She was a crime reporter for local newspaper El Sol de Orizaba.

The Veracruz attorney general's office said that Flores Salazar, who was found dead with her head wrapped in a plastic bag, was abducted from her house around 2 AM by at least eight armed men. The assailants, who were dressed in what seemed to be military uniforms, forced their way into her home.

Her aunt, Sandra Luz Salazar, who was in the house at the time, told CPJ that the gunmen claimed they possess a warrant for her niece's arrest. The assailants reportedly pointed their guns at family members as they forced Flores Salazar into one of the three gray trucks parked outside.

Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte tweeted that the abductors' vehicles were stolen. 

According to a news report, Flores Salazar had a baby and a four-year-old son.

Flores Salazar recently worked on a report about a store owner who was fatally shot, CPJ added. She also reported on police activities, murders, and car accidents for El Sol de Orizaba. She formerly contributed for the dailies El Buen Tono and El Mundo de Orizaba as well.

The country's Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression will probe into Flores Salazar's abduction and death, CNN reported from the federal attorney general's office.

The state prosecutor's office claimed in a statement released on Monday that the journalist had connections with a suspected member of an organized crime group.

"The administration of Governor Javier Duarte Ochoa has a dismal record of impunity and has been incapable and unwilling to prosecute crimes against the press," said Carlos Lauría, CPJ's senior program coordinator for the Americas. "We urge federal authorities to take over the investigation into Anabel Flores Salazar's murder, seriously look her journalism as a possible motive, and bring all those responsible to justice."

The CPJ considers Mexico as one of the world's most dangerous regions for journalists, CNN wrote. Majority of the threat comes from organized crime groups like drug cartels. Since 2011, 11 journalists have been slain as direct retribution for their work.

Veracruz sees the most violence against journalists. CPJ said that six of the country's 11 confirmed journalist killings over the past five years took place in the state. That number doesn't include the murders with unclear motives of seven other journalists and three more who are missing.

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