8th January, 2015
Thirteen police officers were detained in the Mexican state of Veracruz on Wednesday in connection with a journalist’s kidnapping, as authorities worked to identify a corpse found in a nearby town.
The municipal officers were among a group of 36 cops who were called Monday to testify in the disappearance of Moises Sanchez, the editor of Medellin newspaper La Union, who was snatched from his home by armed men on January 2.
State prosecutor Luis Angel Bravo on Wednesday ordered 13 of them to be detained for 30 days. The rest were released.
Sanchez is known for his stories on the drug-related violence that has shaken Medellin, which neighbors Veracruz, one of Mexico’s largest ports.
Prosecutors said they had taken a DNA sample from Sanchez’s son to see if it matches the remains of a man found in the nearby village of Soledad de Doblado on Monday night.
Officials said the body bore signs of torture and was unrecognizable.
Veracruz is the most dangerous state in Mexico for journalists. At least 15 have been killed and four others have disappeared there since 2000, according to London-based Article 19.
Across Mexico, 81 journalists were killed from 2000 to September 2014, according to Reporters Without Borders, which calls the country one of the most dangerous in the world for journalists.