The Mexican state of Michoacán was the scene Tuesday of the worst violence to have taken place in a single day in recent months. Authorities said that at least 22 people were killed in different gun battles between police and organized crime gangs throughout the state. Mexico’s National Security Commission reported six attacks against federal police by gang members in different locations. Among the dead are two members of the police force; 15 other officers were seriously...

Reporters Without Borders calls on the authorities to do everything possible to shed light on the murder of Alberto López Bello, a newspaper reporter whose body was found alongside that of a policeman yesterday in Trinidad de Viguera, a town near the southern city of Oaxaca. Both had been shot dead. The two were last seen alive earlier yesterday in a downtown Oaxaca bar. No message was left by their killers. Aged 28, López had been covering crime for the past six years for El...

Unknown individuals threw a Molotov cocktail at the house of the candidate for city council from the Contract for Baja California Coalition, Leticia Castañada, however it did not explode and there were no major consequences. The events occurred at 6AM today at her home in Mariano Matamoros, in District 13, where mayoral candidate, Jorge Astiazarán Orcí, went to attend to the matters. Leticia Castañeda was for years a militant in the National Action Party, and...

Reporters Without Borders is today releasing a video interview in which Verónica Basurto Gamero, a young independent journalist who used to be based in Mexico City, explains why she had to flee abroad at the start of March. She also criticizes the new Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which failed to protect her from dangers arising from her journalistic work. Set up in October 2012 and overseen by the interior ministry, the Federal...

Gunmen executed two sons of two prominent Mexican journalists in the northern city of Chihuahua, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office said on Sunday, and police found seven bodies dumped in a Mexico City suburb. Alfredo Paramo, 20, and Diego Paramo, 21, were shot dead in Chihuahua early on Saturday after being chased through the streets by gunmen in a car, said spokesman Carlos Gonzalez. They are the sons of well-known Mexican financial journalist David Paramo, who hosts a...

Anonymous journalists in Saltillo told the magazine Proceso that a representative from the Coahuila state prosecutor knew in advance where to find the bodies of Martínez and Zamora. According to the magazine, the authorities passed the area twice where Claudia Elodia Brondo Morales, regional officer for the Coahuila state Attorney General, told them they would find the corpses. Authorities found them on their third sweep, reported Proceso. Proceso's report did not include comments...

The east-coast state of Veracruz, classified by Reporters Without Borders as one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists, is unfortunately living up to its reputation. Reporters Without Borders has learned that Sergio Landa Rosado (photo), a crime reporter for Cardel, a local newspapers based in the town of Cardel, in the north of the state, has been missing for the past month and a half. A month before he went missing, he was kidnapped by an armed group and was released...

Javier Manzano. Agence France-Presse. Three Mexican journalists have won 2013 Pulitzer Prizes: Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab, for Investigative Reporting of corruption in Wal-Mart´s expansion in Mexico; Javier Manzano for Feature Photography of photos of Syrian rebel soldiers; and Narciso Contreras for breaking news photography of the war in Syria. See the prize-winning articles and photos below. The Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting was awarded to David Barstow and Alejandra...

Two cases have rightly fuelled the controversy about a decision to award Veracruz state governor Javier Duarte a prize for his supposed “commitment in the service of freedom of expression.” The first is the 38-year jail sentence that a man has just received for Proceso correspondent Regina Martínez’s April 2012 murder in Veracruz state. The second is Verónica Danell’s dismissal as Megacable TV presenter, which she has blamed on pressure from the...

The trial of former de facto head of Guatemala, Efraín Ríos Montt, on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, is a landmark achievement in the fight for justice in Guatemala. Ríos Montt was indicted in January 2012 for genocide and crimes against humanity relating to 15 massacres that resulted in the deaths of 1,771 indigenous Ixil peopleduring his rule from 1982 to 1983. He will be tried in Guatemala City together with his former chief of military intelligence,...