Mexican journalist, his wife and photographer son shot dead

In Mexico a prominent journalist was shot dead together with his wife and son, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported yesterday.

Politics and crime columnist for the daily newspaper Notiver, Miguel Ãngel LÃ³pez Velasco, 55, and the two members of his family were shot by unidentified assailants who broke into their home in Veracruz early in the morning.

Governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, said in a statement given to Notiver: “Today in a cowardly act, an act that harms all society – because it is not an attack against a medium of communication, it is not even an attack against a professional group, it is an attack against society as a whole, against Veracruz society – they killed our friend Miguel Ãngel LÃ³pez Velasco.”

LÃ³pez, the former deputy editor of Notiver, had a column called ‘Va de Nuez’under the pseudonym Milo Vela in which he recently wrote about drug trafficking in the region, according to the CPJ. The Associated Press wrote that his son, Misael LÃ³pez, 21, had been working as a photographer for the same newspaper at the time he was killed.

State investigators said this is a shocking assault that underscores the country’s ongoing crisis, writes the CPJ. The CPJ is now urging the Mexican government to take action to end the violence that is undermining the country’s democracy.

In the past few weeks, two other Mexican journalists were found dead. Reporters Without Borders wrote in June that the body was found of Noel LÃ³pez OlguÃn, a local journalist from Veracruz who had been missing since March. Two weeks later they reported on the death of Pablo Ruelas Barraza, a reporter from Huatabampo, northwest Mexico, who was shot dead. RWB suspects the killings could be work related.

Since the beginning of last year, the CPJ reports that 13 Mexican journalists have been killed, including LÃ³pez, of which at least three killings were directly related to their work. This makes Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists because of its drug-related violence, according to CPJ research.