Journalist Francisco Romero’s body was found dead on May 16, with multiple contusions and gunshot wounds in the town of Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
The murder of Romero, crime reporter for Playa News Aquí and Ahora, sheds serious doubts over the Federal Protection Mechanism that took over his protection after Romero was targeted with several death threats after the murder of his two colleagues, Ruben Pat Cahuich and José Guadalupe Chan Dzib in June and July 2018, respectively.
The Mechanism had assigned Romero two bodyguards and a panic button. According to local media, apparently, the night of his murder, Romero had sent the security detail to rest when at 5 am, he received a call from an alleged informant who alerted him of a crime committed in a local bar. Approximately one hour later, the authorities found Romero’s body in the parking lot of the premises.