Anabel Flores Salazar was found dead on Feb. 9, 2016, one day after she was taken from her home in Veracruz in the early morning hours forced into a waiting vehicle by assailants dressed in military fatigues and carrying heavy weapons. Flores’ body was found in Puebla, half-naked and bound, with a plastic bag over her head. The journalist covered criminal activity in Veracruz, including the Zetas drug cartel. Although she mainly worked for the newspaper El Sol de Orizaba, she also occasionally contributed to other publications including El Buen Tono and El Mundo de Orizaba.
Following Flores’ murder, local authorities linked her to a member of the cartel, although whether her death was attributable to that relationship or to her work was not immediately clear. However, Veracruz Attorney General Luis Angel Bravo, announcing on May 5, 2016 that authorities had apprehended Flores’ suspected killer, said she “was deprived of her liberty and life for publishing stories that affected the interests of a criminal organization to which the material author of the crime belonged”.