Journalist found decapitated in eastern Mexico

A journalist was found decapitated Wednesday in a violence-plagued area of eastern Mexico, police said, the latest in a string of killings in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for reporters.

Hugo Gutierrez, security minister and head of the police in the eastern state of Veracruz, condemned the “cowardly murder” of Julio Valdivia, who worked for the newspaper El Mundo de Veracruz.

“In coordination with the state attorney general’s office we will exhaust all resources to find those responsible,” he said in a statement.

Valdivia’s body was found with his motorcycle on a train track in a mountainous area of the municipality of Tezonapa, according to his newspaper.

He is the fifth journalist killed in Mexico this year, according media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, which urged the authorities to investigate whether the 41-year-old was murdered because of his work.

Mexico is regularly rated by the media watchdog as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.

More than 100 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, with only a fraction of those crimes resulting in convictions.

In one rare such sentencing, a man convicted of ordering the 2017 murder of prominent journalist Miroslava Breach was condemned last month to 50 years in prison. (AFP)