08 October 2007
Mateo Cortés Martínez, Agustín López Nolasco, and Flor Vásquez López
Shooting
Three media workers for the Oaxaca-based daily El Imparcial del Istmo were shot and killed while driving in the southern state of Oaxaca in a vehicle bearing the paper’s logo.
At 1:15 p.m., an Equinox SUV with tinted windows chased and then blocked an El Imparcial del Istmo truck along a highway connecting the cities of Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec, according to Mexican press reports. According to El Imparcial del Istmo, unidentified individuals got out of the car, and shot the van’s driver Mateo Cortés Martínez and delivery workers Agustín López Nolasco and Flor Vásquez López at close range. According to Mexican press reports, El Imparcial del Istmo’s Regional Director Gonzalo Domínguez received an anonymous telephone call later that afternoon stating he was “next.” Luis David Quintana, the daily’s deputy director, told local reporters that the newspaper had received several threatening e-mail messages and letters in the last month warning that the paper should tone down its coverage of local drug trafficking gangs.
