Monterrey, Mexico – Authorities said that organized crime was likely behind the killing of a veteran investigative reporter in an area across the border from Texas plagued by violent drug mobs.
The body of Enrique Perea Quintanilla, publisher of the magazine Dos Caras, Una Verdad – or Two Faces, One Truth – was found Wednesday on a dirt road about 10 miles from Chihuahua City, a spokesman for the state prosecutor’s office, Eduardo Esparza, said.
Perea Quintanilla, 50, was shot on the lower back and left temple and police found two .45-caliber shell casings near the body, Esparza said.
“We have enough elements to consider people linked to organized crime were involved,” he said.
Perea Quintanilla was a reporter for more than 20 years and covered the police for several newspapers and radio stations in Chihuahua City.
For the last 10 months, he published a biweekly magazine that featured hard-hitting reports on corrupt government officials and unsolved murders.
The latest issue carried an interview with a businessman who claimed he had worked undercover for Chihuahua state authorities gathering intelligence on drug traffickers. It also featured an editorial note complaining that the state government was harassing the magazine because of its reporting.
Chihuahua City reporters demanded a full investigation and asked for government protection.
“It’s worrisome because now you think more about what you’re writing,” said Lourdes Diaz, a 26-year-old special investigations and police reporter for El Diario, where Perea Quintanilla worked until 2004.
On Thursday, Diaz and more than 90 other reporters met with Chihuahua state prosecutor Patricia Gonzalez and state secretary-general Fernando Rodriguez to discuss the killing.
The Miami-based Inter American Press Association implored authorities to bring the assailants to justice.
“We energetically condemn this crime and urge the authorities to investigate it thoroughly so that the culprits can be found and brought to justice and the motive can be known,” said Gonzalo Marroquin, president of the association’s freedom committee.
Media groups say Mexico is one of the most dangerous places in the Western Hemisphere to be a journalist, largely because of their reports on drug traffickers. Since 2004, 10 journalists have been killed, including Perea Quintanilla, and another has disappeared.
