El Tiempo de Durango
May 3, 2009, in Santa María El Oro , Mexico
Two pickup trucks intercepted Carlos Ortega Samper, a reporter for the Durango City-based daily El Tiempo de Durango, as he was driving home in the town of Santa María El Oro, 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of the state capital, colleagues told CPJ. Four unidentified individuals got off the trucks and pulled the reporter from his car, journalists at El Tiempo de Durango said. As Ortega resisted, his assailants shot him three times in the head with a .40-caliber pistol, according to news reports and CPJ interviews. Ortega, 52, died at the scene.
In an article published on April 2, Ortega alleged that Mayor Martín Silvestre Herrera and Juan Manuel Calderón Guzmán, the local representative for federal programs, had threatened him in connection with recent reporting on conditions in a local slaughterhouse. In the same story, Ortega wrote that he was investigating a local police officer, Salvador Flores Triana, for alleged corruption. The journalist said that the three men should be held responsible if anything were to happen to him or his family.
Ortega, also an attorney, had worked as the Santa María El Oro correspondent for El Tiempo de Durango for less than a year. His editor, Saúl García, told CPJ that he believed Ortega was killed in retaliation for his reporting on local government corruption. However, he said he could not pinpoint a specific story.
García told CPJ that the state attorney's office was investigating Ortega's murder. Authorities have not made a motive public.
Silvestre told local reporters that he had no involvement in the murder. While acknowledging having had disagreements with Ortega, the mayor said he had never threatened the reporter. CPJ calls to the other two officials went unanswered.
CPJ calls to the other two officials have gone unanswered.
Motive Unconfirmed: CPJ is investigating to determine whether the death was work-related.
