Mexican authorities confirmed the murder and beheading of a journalist from the beach tourist hotspot of Acapulco who went missing last week.

Through a prepared statement, the Guerrero State Attorney General’s Office revealed that human bodyparts discovered on Wednesday in Acapulco were identified through forensic testing as belonging to journalist Victor Fernando Alvarez Chavez. The statement revealed that relatives had formally reported the victim as missing on April 2 in Acapulco.

Alvarez Chavez served as director of the local news outlet Punto por Punto and had previously been the target of several threats from the various drug cartels that operate and are fighting for control of Acapulco and other parts of Guerrero. As Breitbart Texas reported, Guerrero has been a hotspot for violence in recent years as multiple drug cartels fight for control of the region’s drug production and drug trafficking routes.

According to Mexico’s El Universal, relatives claimed that after the victim went missing, Mexican prosecutors forced them to wait 72 hours before they could file a missing person’s report.

According to Guerrero’s FGE, authorities collected the victim’s severed remains on Wednesday and submitted samples for testing. It remains unclear from their statement if the entire body was recovered or only certain body parts.

Alvarez Chavez is the fourth murdered journalist in 2020. His death comes just days after two gunmen on a motorcycle fatally shot Maria Elena Ferral in Veracruz, Breitbart Texas reported. Paramedics rushed the journalist to a local hospital where she died hours later. The governor of Veracruz mocked local news outlets at the time claiming they were using the fatal attack on Ferral to criticize his government.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.     

Tony Aranda from Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project contributed to this report