Mexican reporter Francisco Romero Daz shot dead in Playa del Carmen

May 17, 2019 6:54 PM ET



Mexican marines patrol the beach of Playacar, near the resort of Playa del Carmen, in Quintana Roo, in
February 2019. Journalist Francisco Romero Díaz was shot dead in Playa del Carmen on May 16.
(AFP/Daniel Slim)

May 17, 2019 6:54 PM ET

Mexico City, May 17, 2019--Mexican authorities must immediately undertake a credible and transparent investigation into the killing of Francisco Romero Díaz, a reporter who was shot dead yesterday in Playa del Carmen, a beachside resort in the southern Mexican state of Quintana Roo, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Amir Ibrahim, Romero's editor at the local newspaper Quintana Roo Hoy, told CPJ that Romero's wife had said the journalist left home in the early hours after receiving a tip about a possible story. At approximately 6 a.m., Romero arrived near an establishment in the city, where unidentified gunmen shot him at least twice in the head, according to a statement given to media by the Quintana Roo state attorney general's office later that day. Romero died instantly.

Romero, 28, had been enrolled in a federal protection program since mid-2018, according to an official of the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak with CPJ. The official said that Romero was assigned government bodyguards after he received threats around the time that two of his colleagues at Semanario Playa News, a now defunct Facebook news page for which he reported, were killed.

"This brutal murder of Francisco Romero Díaz is a direct consequence of the unabating violence in Quintana Roo and Playa del Carmen, a state and city popular with tourists, but lethal for journalists," said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ's Mexico representative. "Mexican authorities must do everything in their power to bring the culprits to justice, and the Federal Protection Mechanism must conduct a thorough review into the murder of a journalist under its protection program."

More:
https://cpj.org/2019/05/mexico-reporter-francisco-romero-diaz-shot-playa-carmen.php

LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142317855




Francisco Romero Díaz

Rest in Peace