AUGUST 9, 2006
Posted: August 21, 2006
Noticias, Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca
ATTACKED
At 7:30 a.m., two masked assailants broke into the distribution and delivery area of the Oaxaca-based daily Noticias, Voz e Imagen de Oaxacaand opened fire, injuring five employees.
The attackers entered the newspaper premises looking for the owner Ericel Gómez Nucamendi, said editor Ismael Sanmartín Hernández. They fired a round of bullets causing minor injuries to five distribution employees. The assailants also took a laptop computer and at least 5,000 Mexican pesos (US$460).
Gómez accused Oaxaca’s governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz of instigating the attack in response to the paper’s harsh criticism. Miguel Ángel Concha Viloria, a spokesman for the governor, rejected the accusation as false.
The Oaxaca state prosecutor and the special prosecutor for crimes against the press have opened investigations into the attack.
Noticias, the largest circulation daily in Oaxaca, has been operating out of temporary offices since June 2005, when members of the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants (CROC), a trade union linked to the ruling party Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), occupied its permanent offices.
Sanmartín told CPJ that managers and journalists have been unable to go back because all entrances to the offices are still blocked by state police.
See previous CPJ reports on this case:
http://www.cpj.org/protests/05ltrs/Mexico30june05pl.htmlhttp://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Mexico19july05na.html