Journalist Beaten to Death in Mexican Border State — 3rd in May

Mexican authorities are investigating the murder of a journalist in Tamaulipas, marking the second killing of its kind in the border state this year and the sixth overall in 2018. In May, Mexico suffered three media homicides alone.

Authorities found the body of Hector Gonzalez Antonio in a vacant lot in the Estrella neighborhood in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas. Gonzalez was a national correspondent for Mexico’s Excelsior and worked in various local outlets.

According to information released by the Tamaulipas government, Gonzalez was beaten to death. Breitbart Texas obtained various crime scene photographs which reveal the extent of the beating that Gonzalez endured. The man’s body was covered in blood and his white shirt and jeans were ripped as well.

Gonzalez appears to be the sixth journalist murdered in Mexico. The nation is labeled by press freedom groups as the most dangerous for the media industry. Five days before Gonzalez’s death, a similar murder took place in Nuevo Leon, when authorities discovered the body of Alicia Diaz Gonzalez, a writer for Mexico’s El Financiero. Diaz Gonzalez was also beaten to death and left in a pool of blood in her home near Monterrey. Authorities confirmed to Breitbart Texas that robbery was not a motive in Diaz Gonzalez’s case.

Earlier this month, a team of gunmen shot radio journalist Juan Carlos Huerta as he was leaving his home in Villa Hermosa, Tabasco. The case has been labeled a targeted assassination but remains unsolved, Breitbart Texas reported. 

In January, a team of assassins ambushed and killed Tamaulipas columnist and semi-retired journalist Carlos Dominguez Rodriguez in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. Dominguez was stabbed to death in front of his family. Authorities arrested a relative of the former mayor of Nuevo Laredo and several other individuals allegedly linked to the homicide.

In February, a team of gunmen murdered satirist Leslie Ann Pamela Montenegro del Real at a restaurant in Acapulco, Guerrero. Montenegro, who went by the name “Nana Pelucas,” was a sharp critic of the Mexican government and social issues, but had managed to upset drug cartels who threatened her shortly before her murder. The murder remains unsolved.

In March, a team of gunmen shot and killed Leobardo Vazquez Atzin in Veracruz. Vazquez ran the online news site Enlace Informativo Regional and recently reported on a local mayor tied to an illicit property grab. Soon after his reporting was published, the journalist claimed he was receiving threats from the politician, Breitbart Texas reported.

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

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