Mexico: four found dead in Veracruz

Mexico: four found dead in Veracruz Two press photographers have been found dead in a canal in the Mexican port city of Veracruz on alongside a former cameraman and a fourth body, less than a week after another journalist based in the city was killed in her home. Of the nine Mexican journalists killed last year probably as a result of their work, four were from Veracruz. Ricardo Gonzalez, of the press freedom activist group Article 19, said journalists in Veracruz are being targeted as a result of their position "as witnesses to the decomposition of the state. The attacks intensified following the change of state governor 18 months ago that, observers say, destabilised a previous division of the territory between the Zetas and the Gulf cartels. A local paper called Notiver, which has a reputation for being more critical than most, has been hit particularly hard. State authorities later said Esteban Rodríguez, a former cameraman, was also among the dead as well as a woman named as Irasema Becerra, said to be Luna's girlfriend. The two photographers tortured and killed this week were reportedly among a group of journalists who left the paper in fear around that time. A political reporter from the same paper called Yolanda Ordaz, was found dead and dismembered a month later. Regina Martinez, the Veracruz correspondent of the weekly national news magazine Proceso found strangled to death in her home last weekend, was the first journalist murdered in 2012. Gonzalez, of Article 19, said there have been "absolutely no advances" in the investigation of any of the murders of journalists in Veracruz. Mexico: four found dead in Veracruz Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 04/05/2012