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on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

The body of abducted Veracruz journalist found

Lucio R. Borderland Beat with material from CJP, and Puebla Noticias

A body was found Tuesday with a plastic bag wrapped around her head, hands tied behind her body, and her feet bound.  The body was on the Cuacnopalan-Tehuacan highway, and is identified as  reporter Anabel Flores Salazar.

The  El Sol de Orizaba reporter was abducted Monday from her home near the city of Orizaba, in the state of Veracruz.

Between 9:00 and 9:50 hours the discovery was made on the road side in the municipality of Palmar de Bravo in the state of Puebla.

The Attorney General (State FGE)  would not confirm the cause of death was asphyxiation or if the woman had injuries with some kind of weapon.

Flores Salazar,  was abducted from her home, at around 2 AM Monday, as she was feeding her 15 day old baby, in the Puerta Grande Mariano Escobedo municipality in the metropolitan area of ​​the city of Orizaba.

Eight or more armed assailants dressed in military uniforms, forced their way into Flores Salazar's home, and went straight to her room.  The journalist's aunt Sandra Luz Salazar, who was in the house at the time, said the assailants claimed they had a warrant for the reporter's arrest.  Gunmen  kept weapons pointed at family members in the home, while Flores Salazzar was forced into one of three gray trucks the armed men arrived in.


"We pleaded with them not to take her. I told them that she had a newborn baby," said Luz Salazar.  Flores Salazar, who covers crime for the newspaper, and leaves behind a baby and a four-year-old son.

Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte Ochoa said on Twitter Monday that authorities were following the case carefully. A statement from the state prosecutor's office, also released Monday, claimed the reporter had links with an alleged member of an organized crime group.  Under Duarte’s time in office there have been 11 murders of Veracruz journalists.

"The administration of Governor Javier Duarte Ochoa has a dismal record of impunity and has been incapable and unwilling to prosecute crimes against the press," said Carlos Lauría, Committee to Protect Journalists, senior program coordinator for the Americas.

"We urge federal authorities to take over the investigation into Anabel Flores Salazar's murder, seriously look her journalism as a possible motive, and bring all those responsible to justice."

A statement from the Veracruz state prosecutor's office, issued shortly after her abduction, said that in August 2014 Flores Salazar had been in the company of an alleged member of an organized crime group at the time of his arrest. Authorities said they are looking into possible link between Flores Salazar and this individual. The statement did not provide further details

When CPJ asked Luz Salazar about the alleged connection, she said her niece had been having dinner with her family when the suspected criminal, who was at the same restaurant but not with them, was arrested.


"Veracruz authorities have a history of denigrating the activities of local journalists without providing any concrete evidence," said Lauría. "We urge authorities to abstain from making unfounded accusations that may further endanger the Veracruz media."

53 comments:

  1. again, why do they insist on leaving bodies with pants down shirts up??? If thats some way to humiliate someone then they're wrong because some people are comfortable in their bodies and aren't ashamed of showing it.

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    1. WTF, not that kind of moment.

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    2. Thats sometimes rhe outcome when your in a hurry to get the body out of the truck,dragging and pulling the body eill vsuse that

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    3. 5:56 your rationale seems completely out of context . Not sure why you state that. I think they were trying to create a humiliating scene as you stated . These are just sorry low life people . The sooner criminals like these are executed the better .

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    4. they cant be ashemd when theyre dead

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    5. Why the hell do they let these computer programs like that 5:56 post incoherent comments??? Bring the CAPTCHA back suckers!

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    6. Shes in a better place now. No one can hurt her anymore. Rest in peace beautiful!

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  2. Some people are comfortable in their bodies?? Haa. U know they're dead right?!

    IT is done for humiliation. If your modest then it matters. If ur dead then it really doesn't matter does it?

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    1. Exactly! So if they are dead and it doesnt matter then why pull the pants down and lift the shirts? It like that with almost every body that is encountered. Well any body that remains intact that is.

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    2. Hmmm maybe its the same guy a serial killer en mexico omg what do you think your opinions por favor chavos

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    3. The killers are sick on many levels and are usually not only sadists, but also sexual perverts. The victims are often raped or sexually brutalized before and sometimes after being killed.

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    4. El "gobernador" Javier duarte de ochoa aka "la marrana parada con ojos de toro loco" es el asesino en serie, un gran admirador de francisco franco the murderer from spain, like pinochet and his cabinet of torturers kidnappers and murderers

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    5. 4,000+ killed on his "watch."

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  3. God bless those who mourn the deaths of innocents.

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  4. Ooopppsss duarte did it again and not a dam thing is going to be done

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  5. An honest person doing a job for the public.. a 15 day old baby at home, these cartels are all the same, reporting is a job that takes real balls and bravery in Mexico, to all the reporters on borderlandbeat, thanks for all you do and stay safe.

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    1. 8:54 the cowardly way the government accuses her of being "with the criminal" arrested before her abduction just because they happened to be in the same restaurant should tell you something.
      --Then, I don't think veracruz narcos on the area have a lot of money to spend in police uniforms dusguises and 8 or more assailants and three or more pick-ups to arrest her...
      The mando unico does, and the veracruz state police does, and javier duarte de ochoa has the money to carry on like that, he stole it from the veracruz treasury and from the banks that lend his state money for him to steal...he is PRIISTA!

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    2. She was bought off by one of the cartels to write stories favorable to the cartel.

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    3. So you think she was hired by the cartels to write stories favorable to the cartels and then they killed her for that. Doesn't really make sense.

      I can't find any stories she wrote that were favorable to the cartels. Can you provide me a link to the stories you are referring to.

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    4. Maybe so but you can hardly call that being bought. I'm sure if that's true they only gave her 2 options

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    5. In chatting with the Minister Council to the US Ambassador to Mexico, one learns that the Mexican media is controlled by cartel interests.

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  6. My take, is that leaving a body dumped in humiliating or atrocious ways is meant to send a chilling message to others to not engage in some activity harmful to the contractor(s) for the homicide.

    Sometimes,this is explicit when "cartolinas" with "ESTO LE PASO POR ..." are placed near the dead.

    To me, it appears the journalist was working on story that someone with a great deal of power did not approve of. This is a common practice in Mexico as we know from years of following such incidents here on Borderland Beat.
    Mexico-Watcher

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  7. The cartel bosses are soulless. They will reside in hell for eternity.

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    1. Please, "the cartel bosses" is getting too old...
      --I mean, with thousands of soldiers and narco-polizetas, federales and estatales and municipales, the government keeps blaming the "carteles" and the "capos" that also work for the government, but they can't control the murdering?
      --Of course they do, they are the murderers themselves, and they kill only a few reporters every few months, others are just side jobs and collateral damages...

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    2. One of the motivations for religion right here; the desperate hope that evildoers will someday be brought to justice.

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  8. Was also on cnn.com http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/10/americas/mexico-abducted-journalist-body/index.html
    Let's hope more major news agency's run with this story

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  9. This is wild and terrifying, if real. Mexican journalist threatened via Twitter for criticising new EPN jet and protesting journalist killings. "Watch what you publish. You could be the next. There are strict orders to eliminate people like you." "We're watching you."

    http://aristeguinoticias.com/1002/mexico/amenazas-contra-el-periodista-alvaro-delgado-via-twitter/

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    1. EPN's misión is to crush all rebels: Journalists, autodefensas, students (future dissidents) unaligned capos, mostly everyone who is not submissive to his corrupt government.

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    2. It's becoming an epidemic. Yesterday Proceso's reporter for Guerrero received a death threat from a local politician.

      Reporter Ezequiel Flores was attending a protest at the state Capitol building against the killing of the Veracruz journalist. He was called over by Roger Arellano, a former PRD mayor and local deputy, driving a blue Jetta.

      "You're heading for big trouble, you son of bitch, you remember me?" asked Arellano. "You better watch yourself, because you're gonna get killed," he added. But when Arellano saw other reporters had witnessed the threats, he quickly fled the scene."

      http://suracapulco.mx/grafico/358981/

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    3. @Daily Reader; when I go to that site of you link it just says "cannot find that pate".

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    4. Hey, dd, it was on the front page, and the foto still is, but the text is now here:

      http://suracapulco.mx/grafico/ex-diputado-del-prd-amenaza-al-corresponsal-de-proceso-2/

      Foto still avail here: http://suracapulco.mx/

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    5. Also, http://mexicovoices.blogspot.mx/2016/02/mexico-press-freedom-former-prd.html

      Original Spanish: http://www.proceso.com.mx/429621/exdiputado-perredista-amenaza-de-muerte-a-corresponsal-de-proceso-en-guerrero

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    6. Thanks TDR, I can access both the photo and text with those links.
      Thanks for tips (and for not putting them all in one comment)

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    7. Daily Reader @4:52PM Man you're just full of good stuff today. I started moderating comments at 6AM this morning and one of them had a tip about the prison riot (just a few hours after it went down), so stopped moderating and wrote the story on the riot, then went back to moderating. Finished at 2:PM . Had to take a break for awhile. I was bushed. Doesn't give a fellow much time to look for new stories. Your tips are really appreciated. aristeguinoticias and Mexico Voices are 2 of my favorite sites for stories. Thanks again.

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    8. Gee whiz. Ya gotta leave the office to be a journalist. Who knew?

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  10. Bien Chingones se crean matando una madre de babe y uno de solo 4 anos. No son hombres son lo mas bajo de Mexico. Que le paso a todos los valientes de Mexico. Porque no protegen a su gente?

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    1. Ya no hay valientes en mexico,nos venimos pa' califas :)

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    2. Ya los traen todos pendejos y manipulados.

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    3. Ella fue trabajando para Los carteles

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    4. What do you base your belief that she was working for the cartels?

      Even the Prosecutor couldn't get his facts straight when he tried to tie her to the cartels. “All of the reporter’s probable links are being investigated,” the prosecutor’s office said, immediately adding, “Such as that of Aug. 30, 2014…when she was found in the company of Victor Osorio Santacruz, alias El Pantera, who was detained at that moment by elements of the Mexican Army for his probable connections with an organized crime group.”

      Victor Osorio Santacruz is indeed known as El Pantera and is indeed connected to organized crime, having been caught in a police uniform with a list of what bribes the Los Zetas cartel was paying to which officials. But he seems to have been arrested in 2011, not 2014 and by the Mexican marines, not the army.

      Flores Salazar’s family reportedly confirms that’s she was present in the restaurant where El Pantera was arrested. But the family says that she was there with them to celebrate her birthday, not to dine with a hoodlum.

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    5. dd is right. Here's a great summary.

      http://mexicovoices.blogspot.mx/2016/02/mexico-press-freedom-veracruz-state.html

      Flores apparently witnessed the Army take away some narcos from a restaurant she happened to be dining in. She tried to take some fotos, but was roughed up. The narcos were never seen again. This is the supposed link between Flores and narcos. Her identity as the reporter who could ID the Army guys was recently revealed, putting her life in jeopardy.

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    6. Tha is what lucio wrote in the post and is directly from the aunt to CPJ she was in the restaurant eating with family. as for taking fotos the family did not say she did that. She was a crime reporter however so maybe

      duarte always tried to say journalists are connected to narcos. (The governor christi of Veracruz) so that it will appear as if they some how deserve being murdered and not that ver is the most dangerous Mexican state to work in.

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    7. Well chiva, you can see the fingerprints de las patotas de marrana de javier duarte de ochoa and his modus operandi.

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  11. Serious question: Why do we always see the victims in their underwear with their pants pulled down?

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    1. It's sign of disrespect to show others you gave up information or spoke about a subject you shouldn't have spoken on. It's mostly done to narco rats or snitches.

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  12. When we decided to go to Juarez, we went with a Mexican 'fixer' who had successfully brought a CNN crew into Juarez a few years ago, and he contacted a bunch of undercover Federales who drove us around. They carried submachine guns in the front of the car and told us very specific things like, I should bring glasses with me, since I wore contact lenses, just in case we got stopped and kidnapped. We drove a white SUV because only the cartel guys drive black SUVs and if you drive a black SUV you can get targeted. We were shadowed by a white Mustang because we were there too long, but the trip made the movie for us. We understood what Juarez was. The thing that strikes you about Juarez is that life goes on - there are kids playing ball there, there are people going on with their daily business - but at the same time there's this overhanging veil of darkness and crime.

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  13. "15 days before her abduction, Anabel Flores Salazar gave birth to her second child. She had been fired from work 8 months ago for allegedly taking payoffs from cartels and tailoring her reports accordingly. She owned a luxury truck she could never have been able to afford from her salary as a reporter." is this true about her???

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    1. Maybe she was being paid good money for reporting, or from sharing the butt, or whatever...
      But the government seems to be too busy trashing her character and giving her a bad reputation, not any of the biig baaad ugly narcos... and an important detail, the narcos usually have the "decency" of explaining on a cartulina or a manta porque se los llevó la verga a sus victimas,
      --the government does not bother until they have to say sompim' to the press, then they blame "organized crime or connections"

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  14. 7:33 you are wrong if you really believe the cartels are the murderers of all mexico...they are usually the politicians shock forces and their mercenaries...

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  15. Mexico needs to pay its honest working citizens well, and take everything away from criminals. Take their freedom away and everything they and their families possess. Leave their families living in the streets.

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  16. Can you please post and discuss the bodies that were found at the El Limon ranch in Veracruz? Thanks

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  17. America can travel 7,000 miles to provide freedom in Iraq but can't travel a few miles S of the border to help our Hispanic Brothers

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    1. Believe it or not 4:13 the US doesn't intervene with Mexico's internal politics because of respect. The US will only assist Mexico if the government ask for help. Typically Mexico doesn't want any intervention from the US.

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