Journalists Killed in 2008 - Motive Unconfirmed: Miguel Angel Villagómez Valle
- Document source:
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Date:
January 2009
La Noticia de Michoacán
October 10, 2008, in between Lázaro Cárdenas and Zihuatanejo, Mexico
Police found Villagómez's body, bruised and riddled with gunshot wounds, in a garbage dump near a coastal highway between the towns of Lázaro Cárdenas, where he edited the regional newspaper La Noticia de Michoacán, and Zihuatanejo, where he lived with his wife and three children.
Villagómez, 29, had last been seen the night before, when he left his newsroom in Lázaro Cárdenas, a port city on the southern Pacific coast of Michoacán, around 10:30 p.m. and dropped two colleagues off at their homes, law enforcement officials and journalists told CPJ.
Villagómez's wife, Irania Iveth Leyva Faustino, told CPJ that her husband had received recent phone threats from callers identifying themselves as members of the Zetas criminal group. Villagómez's paper regularly covered crime, including cartel activities. Authorities did not disclose any arrests or other information on the case.
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