Mexican journalist Hugo Alfredo Olivera Cartas was found dead on 6 June on the outskirts of Apatzingan, in the state of Michoacán. Police said Olivera, who had been missing since the previous evening, was found inside his pick-up truck at 3 am, with three bullet shots near his left ear and one shot to his right arm. The car’s engine was still running and Olivera’s watch, rings and cellular telephone were missing, police said, and declared that the journalist was murdered by robbers.

However, staff members at Olivera’s newspaper, El Día de Michoacán, reportedly said that the newspaper’s offices in Apatzingan were broken into on the morning of 6 June by unknown thieves, who took computer hard drives, flash drives and CDs containing information about crimes committed in the area.

“Investigative journalists in Mexico continue to be murdered with ruthless consistency,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “The authorities’ failure to solve these murders fuels a climate of impunity which further emboldens the killers, compromises journalists’ ability to gather and transmit information, and casts a long shadow over the credibility of Mexico’s administration of justice.”

Olivera was the publisher of the local daily El Día de Michoacán as well as the founder and director of the news agency ADN. His articles covered primarily issues related to crime and police activities.

Local news outlets reported that in February this year Olivera filed a complaint against several federal police officers for beating him up at a crime scene he was investigating.

According to IPI’s Death Watch, eight journalists have been killed in Mexico since the beginning of 2010. In 2009, 11 journalists were killed in the country.

Michoacán state is one of the most dangerous areas for journalists in Mexico. The Mexican press freedom group Cencos (Centro Nacional de Comunicación Social) and the London-based organisation ARTICLE 19 reported that in 2009 one journalist was killed, one disappeared and nine were attacked there. Four journalists have disappeared in the state since 2006.