Mexican Reporter Is Shot to Death

THE NEW YORK TIMES

MEXICO CITY — A newspaper reporter who wrote an article published Saturday saying he had received threats from local government officials in the northern state of Durango was shot to death the next day by unidentified assailants, his colleagues said Tuesday.

The reporter, Carlos Ortega Samper, 52, who worked at El Tiempo de Durango, was shot three times in the head with a .40-caliber pistol after being pulled from his car, his colleagues said.

“We are shocked by Carlos Ortega Samper’s killing,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Given the allegations the reporter made against local government officials, it is imperative that local and federal authorities cooperate during the investigation into his murder. It is time to put an end to impunity in the killings of Mexican journalists.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, called for a thorough investigation.