The lifeless body of Luis Martín Sánchez Iñiguez, a correspondent for the newspaper La Jornada in the Mexican state of Nayarit, was found on Saturday (8) with signs of violence after he was reported missing, local prosecutors said.

Sanchez became the first active journalist to die in violence in 2023 in Mexico, considered one of the most dangerous countries for communicators.

Mexican journalist Luis Martín Iñiguez was found last Saturday in the Mexican state of Nayarit – Photo: Reproduction/World News

“The body was found with signs of violence and two cards with the message (…), and the communicator Luis Martín Sánchez Iñiguez was identified by members of his family,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Investigation into the death of a Mexican journalist

According to the first investigation, death occurred between 24 and 48 hours before his discovery, this Saturday morning, in the countryside near Tepic, the capital of Nayarit.

According to local media, the Mexican journalist’s body was bound and wrapped in plastic bags, and the messages belonged to criminal gangs.

La Jornada, one of the country’s largest newspapers, founded in 1985 and based in Mexico City, has already lost two of its most prestigious correspondents: Miroslava Brich in Chihuahua in March 2017 (north) and Javier Valdes in Sinaloa (northwest) in May the same year. This last journalist was an AFP employee.

Mexican journalist Sanchez Iniguez’s wife, Cecilia Lopez, said last Friday (7th) that she had not known his whereabouts since Wednesday evening (5th). She was visiting family in another city and called home in Tepic to speak with her husband.

Prosecutors announced they were investigating the case as a crime related to the work of Mexican journalist Sanchez Iñiguez.

The family also said that although they found the clothes the journalist was wearing at home on Wednesday, his belongings were missing a journalist badge, computer, mobile phone and hard drive (HD).

Artigo 19 thanked the authorities for preferring journalistic activity as a motive for the crime, but demanded that the Prosecutor General’s Office support investigations in accordance with the protocol on crimes against freedom of speech.

More than 150 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, according to the organization. There were 13 reported murders of journalists in 2022, according to the government, and authorities are investigating whether the killings were related to the profession of the victims.