Gunmen Kidnap Journalist in Mexican Gulf State

MEXICO CITY – A journalist was taken away from her house Monday in the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz and her whereabouts is unknown, police said.

Anabel Flores Salazar, a police reporter for the El Sol de Orizaba newspaper, was kidnapped in a residential area in Mariano Escobedo, a city located in Veracruz’s mountainous central region.

The system for locating missing reporters was activated as soon as Flores Salazar’s kidnapping was reported, the State Commission for the Assistance and Protection of Journalists said in a statement.

The multi-agency system coordinates the efforts of the Veracruz Public Safety Secretariat, Attorney General’s Office and State Commission for the Assistance and Protection of Journalists.

Flores Salazar’s relatives were contacted and offered assistance, the commission said.

El Sol de Orizaba is owned by Organizacion Editorial Mexicana, or OEM.

Managers and journalists at the daily El Buen Tono, which covers Cordoba and Orizaba, have received threatening phone calls in the past few hours from individuals claiming to be members of the Zetas drug cartel.

The callers warned that they would burn down the newspaper’s offices in retaliation for stories it published and state police are now guarding El Buen Tono’s headquarters.

Veracruz is one of the most dangerous states in Mexico for members of the press, with 15 journalists murdered there during Gov. Javier Duarte’s 2010-2016 term.