Photographer found dead one day after being abducted

The Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) confirmed that Edgar Daniel Esqueda Castro was found dead this morning in San Luis Potosí.

He was abducted yesterday morning by armed men who burst in his home in the city of San Luis Potosí, 400 km north of Mexico city, identified themselves as government agents, and took him away without any explanation.

His wife told RSF that they were asleep when the gunmen broke into their home. “After identifying themselves as government officials, they grabbed Edgar by the neck and threw him to the ground while pointing a gun at me,” she said.

“Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Mexican judicial authorities to quickly identify those responsible for this shocking murder and urge them to guarantee his family's safety", said Emmanuel Colombié, the head of RSF’s Latin America desk.

Esqueda Castro works for the Metropoli San Luís newspaper and for Vox Populi de San Luis Potosi, a website specializing in covering crime. He previously also worked for El Heraldo and Plan Informativo, two other local newspapers, and created his own media outlet, Infórmate Potosino.

While he was covering a crime scene in June, police officers seized his camera and forced him to delete the photos he had taken. He filed a complaint about this incident with the San Luis Potosí state Human Rights Commission but no action was taken. The Mechanism for Protecting Human Rights Defenders and Journalists was made aware of the case and contacted Edgar Daniel. No protection measures were implemented.

Mexico is ranked 147th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index. Its northern neighbour, the United States, is ranked 43rd.