Mexican Journalist Miguel Lopez Killed Along With Wife, Son

VERACRUZ, Mexico -- A journalist, his wife, and their 21-year-old son were shot to death inside their home in this Gulf coast city Monday, authorities said.

Journalist Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco and his family were shot with a 9 mm handgun, said Veracruz state prosecutor Jorge Yunis.

Lopez Velasco, 55, wrote a column about politics and crime and was editorial director for the daily newspaper Notiver. His son, Misael Lopez, had been working as a photographer for the same newspaper.

Yunis said investigators haven't determined a motive in the killings and no one has been arrested.

Earlier this month, state police in Veracruz found the body of reporter Noel Lopez in a clandestine grave. He had been missing since March. The two reporters are not related.

Police said Noel Lopez died of a blow to the head and that soldiers found his body after a man they arrested in the killings of several police officers confessed to killing him and led them to the body.

Noel Lopez worked for the weeklies Horizonte and Noticias de Acayucan and for the daily newspaper La Verdad.

The office of Mexico's Interior Minister said Monday that federal prosecutors will help the state attorney general with the case.

Press freedom groups say Mexico is the most dangerous country in the Americas for journalists.

"The Mexican government must put an end to this endless wave of violence that is eroding the democratic system," said Carlos Lauria, senior program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists in the Americas.

Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights said on Monday that 70 journalists have been killed since 2000. In addition, it said 13 have disappeared.

Other press freedom groups consider the numbers high and differ on the definition of who constitutes a journalist in Mexico's homicide figures. For example, the Committee to Protect Journalists says since 2000 there have 48 journalists killed and disappeared in Mexico, including three newspaper carriers who were killed for distributing newspapers.

Comments

[bart4u]

02:27 AM on 06/23/2011

I have no desire to ever vacation in Mexico again. What the heck has happened to that beautiful country in the past 20 years. This is very sad.

[wyb]

10:34 AM on 06/22/2011

American gun manufactures have been hawking guns in Mexico for a hundred years. They have a de facto public relations firm, the NRA which now operates as the front person at the dealership. Their latest burp and chirp, is the ATF sting sting operation. They have faught chomping down on rogue gun dealers in the south west for years. This latest casus belli, is like a a lifer inmate in Super Max, reporting a guard being reported for taking seconds in the chow line. Last week it was a correctional officer, double parking report. Next, week it will be the ATF losing paper work.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...how is that .50 caliber designed for light armor, working on belt buckles?

[RobertWV1964]

03:02 PM on 07/07/2011

Hey stupid look at the laws of Mexico that do not allow for the people to keep and bear arms and tell me that it works. The criminals have guns and the people

[Johannes B]

10:16 AM on 06/22/2011

almost 40,000 mexicans died since 2006, NAFTA at work

[FilmCriticOne]

10:04 PM on 06/23/2011

Yeah, I am sure its NAFTA. Oh wait, maybe you have some other pet peeve --- your mom snores. All those people died because your mom snored.

Great logic.

[lena22]

09:52 AM on 06/22/2011

Wow....so sad!

[londonwitch]

09:26 AM on 06/22/2011

I say to all Americans, boycott Mexico, do not give them your business. I still want to see the moat built along the border and filled with Alligators, this will stop them from coming in here.

[360Dunk]

09:36 AM on 06/22/2011

Animal rights activists will insist the alligators are tended to properly with meals and water temperature controls.

[GraphicMatt]

10:14 AM on 06/22/2011

I don't think alligators do well in the dessert.

[Raidertwo]

10:26 AM on 06/22/2011

Use Crocs they love hot weather. Food supply will be swimmers.

[defend2ndamend]

10:03 AM on 06/22/2011

Why not heads on stakes every 10 yards of those at our southern border, who are caught illegally trying to enter our country. Women and children included......or is that too harsh?

[wyb]

11:52 AM on 06/22/2011

Not for some folks, who would relish shooting a kid in the back. The Eric Hoenekers of the East, seemed to have moved West.

[londonwitch]

11:32 AM on 06/24/2011

I didn't even suggest that and you are being and ignorant Jack Rabbit, that is like all you libs take something and twist it all around. I AM A LEGAL IMMIGRANT I WENT THROUGH HELL TO STAY HERE, AND WAS TREATED LIKE A THIRD CLASS CITIZEN EVEN THOUGH I WAS LEGAL, SO WHY SHOULD OTHER'S COME ACROSS THE BORDER AND GET EVERYTHING FOR FREE?????

Now A Naturalized Citizen, and able to vote!!!!!!

[Gary Storch]

09:09 AM on 06/22/2011

The stranglehold that our corporate lobbies have over our legislative bodies is frightening. This could have been stopped years ago but dollars over logic rules in DC.

[Barbara Lilly]

09:02 AM on 06/22/2011

This is terrifying for anyone who values free speech as a basic human right.

[fast308]

10:08 AM on 06/22/2011

Free speech is not always free. Sometimes you get KILLED for it!

[FilmCriticOne]

10:06 PM on 06/23/2011

Wrong, learn some history. Free speech protects the person from GOVERNMENT, not from killers and terrorists.

[cdiasmd]

10:57 AM on 06/22/2011

Free Speech protects the message...not the messenger.

[FilmCriticOne]

10:07 PM on 06/23/2011

Wrong, free speech amendment protects the MESSENGER from government oppression. It does not protect them from killers and psychopaths.

[markagan]

08:56 AM on 06/22/2011

The US could end the cocaine wars within a few months. Send a fleet of planes to columbia and peru, spray the coca crops killing them. To hell with the governments of Peru and Columbia. We could compensate the farmers in those countries with $5000 a year and save Americans 20 Billion a year in Drug wars as well as ending the narco wars in Mexico. The problem is that the US and Mexican governments have so many people making money, so much corruption that cocaine is so profitable, there is no real interest in stopping the drug trade. All we read about is Bullshit, the odd bust now and again.

[The Anti-Con]

01:41 PM on 06/22/2011

cocaine is profitable because they spend 500 dollars to make 500000 dollars... coke in the US starts at 100 bucks a gram on the street... that same gram in Columbia is little more than ten bucks US.

[FilmCriticOne]

10:09 PM on 06/23/2011

Then they will get it elsewhere genius. Or get another drug. What are you going to do Einstien, destroy the earth so no one can get high? How do people get so smart?

[gggooot1]

08:40 AM on 06/22/2011

Yea, but our borders are as safe as ever before.....RIGHT!!!!!

[KennyNash]

08:04 AM on 06/22/2011

And they want us to vacation there........ oh boy when can we go?

[Keyop]

08:04 AM on 06/22/2011

Legalize marijuana, drug cartels go back to making burritos.

[godabarb]

08:01 AM on 06/22/2011

would guess that obama is proud... keep selling guns to mexiceo , boy

these dead people are on your back

[mp60mp32]

08:47 AM on 06/22/2011

People were getting killed down there before Obama got into office. Similar drug killings go on daily in the US. How you could blame one man for something that has been going on in the world prior to his birth is uneducated and simple-minded. With only four fans, I can tell you don't really have anything to say anyhow.

[fast308]

10:12 AM on 06/22/2011

If you were educated you would know the US has CLOSED its eyes to what goes on at the borders!

[Pembrokelib]

10:32 AM on 06/22/2011

The GOP are the ones stopping thru the powerful NRA all gun control regulations. All gun stores selling guns to Mexico should be shut down, but the NRA is too powerful in their opposition.

[Namvet6871]

07:59 AM on 06/22/2011

Enough is enough with these Mexicans, Obama get off ya Butt and really " DO SOMETHING" instead of talking!

[Paul Benton Cramer]

08:16 AM on 06/22/2011

He is doing something, his best to turn us into Mexico.

[fast308]

10:14 AM on 06/22/2011

For English PRESS 1.
Please let us ALL come together and ANYTIME you hear "Press 1 for English" .... PLEASE complain to the manager and tell them its offensive to YOU as an American!

[jfair80]

08:34 AM on 06/22/2011

This story is about Mexicans killing Mexicans. What, do you want Obama to grab a magnifying glass and start investigating or something?

[rodneyvgt]

09:10 AM on 06/22/2011

lets see? maybe he can stop sending guns down there

[fast308]

10:16 AM on 06/22/2011

Obama sticking his nose where is doesn't belong? He would never do that!
ROFLMAO !!!!
America needs to take care of America !!!

[topgearrt]

07:10 AM on 06/22/2011

My wife was a journalist in Colombia 10 years ago and thats what got her here to the United States.I met her 5 years after she got here in 01...she did a news story on the ELN and got death threats.She got into the USA on a political asylum.Lots of groups on this planet will kill you if you even talk about them,the journalist in this story knew this and it sad that he and his family paid for his job with their lives.

[ThisAlreadyHappened]

06:58 AM on 06/22/2011

Once again the AOL to HP link says one thing and does another. This link was supposed to be an article about how fast Ryan Dunn was driving when he died.

[pululima]

08:12 AM on 06/22/2011

Exactly!!

[Tom Airhart]

10:05 AM on 06/22/2011

But it's not about Dunn, is it? Sometimes fit shappens.