Veracruz photographer and reporter receive death threats

NOVEMBER 25, 2006
Posted December 19, 2006

Saúl Contreras, El Mundo de Córdoba
Rafael Saavedra, El Mundo de Córdoba

THREATENED

Contreras, photographer for the local daily El Mundo de Córdoba, was threatened at gunpoint by unidentified individuals in Córdoba, a city in the southeastern Veracruz state. The following morning, Saavedra, a police reporter for the same daily, also received death threats from a group of unidentified individuals.

Contreras left the offices of El Mundo de Córdoba at 9 p.m. on November 25. On his way home, a car blocked Contrera’s motorcycle, Neri Isassi, editor of El Mundo de Córdoba, told CPJ. Three unidentified individuals stepped out of the vehicle and pointed guns at Contreras. One of the assailants warned the photographer that he would be the next to die. According to Isassi, the photographer jumped into bushes on the side of the road and waited for his assailants to leave.

At 7 a.m. on November 26, Saavedra was blocked off by a car as his walked to work, said Isassi. A group of unidentified individuals traveling in the car warned him that if he continued to write about local organized crime, he would have to face the consequences.

Isassi told CPJ that both journalists lodged official complaints with the local Ministry of Interior. Local police are conducting an investigation into the threats, said Isassi.