Ramírez, 50, Acapulco-based correspondent for Televisa and host of the daily news program “Al Tanto” on Radiorama, was shot after leaving Radiorama studios about 7:30 p.m. Ramírez had just stepped into his car when an assailant shot him twice from outside the driver’s window, a colleague told CPJ. A wounded Ramírez ran into the lobby of a nearby hotel, but the attacker followed and shot the journalist in the back, according to press reports.
Within days, state officials detained two men, one of whom was soon released. The other suspect, Genaro Vázquez Durán, was convicted and sentenced in March 2009 to 38 years in prison. Federal authorities said Vázquez matched a description provided by witnesses and possessed illegal weapons of the type used in the murder. Vázquez’s lawyer told reporters that he would appeal.
Local human rights groups and journalists have expressed concern that no clear motive was established, that witnesses implicating Vázquez were not credible, and that some witnesses could not be placed at the crime scene. One witness, Salvador Cabrera, told an Acapulco court in November 2007 that he had been coerced into identifying Vázquez in a police lineup.
The Guerrero state attorney general’s office and the federal special prosecutor for crimes against journalists did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment.
Ramírez’s death occurred as rival drug cartels were battling for turf and engaging in waves of execution-style killings in and around Acapulco. In March 2007, he had aired a Televisa report linking the murders of local police officers to drug traffickers. Misael Habana de los Santos, Ramírez’s co-host at Radiorama, said the journalist had received several death threats by cell phone.