On Monday morning, Anabel Flores Salazar – a crime reporter for El Sol de Orizaba – was kidnapped from her home near Orizaba, Veracruz by armed men dressed in military fatigues. The BBC reports that the mother of two, who wrote about the Zeta drug cartel, has not been seen.
“The search and rescue protocol was launched as soon as her relatives reported what had happened,” Benita González, president of the state commission charged with protecting journalists in Veracruz, told Vice. “These are the first crucial hours for finding her alive.”
A journalist who asked to remain anonymous told Vice that the kidnapping was a “planned attack,” because her work made her a target.
Since 2000, 88 journalists have been killed in Mexico, according to Article 19. Last year, the Los Angeles Times said that the death of photojournalist Rubén Espinosa underlined the growing threat journalists in Mexico face.
Veracruz is known as the most dangerous place in Mexico for journalists, and Gov. Javier Duarte has been criticized for his inaction and for trying to shift blame onto journalists. After the death of Espinosa, for example, he met with a group of Veracruz journalists and said that some of them are “rotten apples” with ties to cartels, according to CNN.
Duarte was sworn into office in 2010, and since then, 14 journalists have been killed. Once again, Twitter has pushed Duarte for answers.
https://twitter.com/Adolfo_ZapataMx/status/696926857518829570