Ruben Espinosa’s coffin was carried to the grave under a blistering Mexico City sun, accompanied by applause from friends and colleagues – and the inconsolable howling of his beloved cocker spaniel, Cosmo.
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Mexico City’s top prosecutor says a suspect has acknowledged he was in the apartment where four women and a photojournalist were killed last week.
In this April 28, 2015 photo, Mexican photojournalist Ruben Espinosa places a plaque to rename a plaza after slain journalist Regina Martinez in the city of Xalapa, in Mexico’s Gulf state of Veracruz.
Mexican investigators have suggested the five may have been killed for any number of reasons, including robbery.
There are now at least a dozen journalists from around the country sheltering in Mexico City because they fear for their safety.
Fingerprints found at the crime scene were matched to the suspect through a criminal database.
The attackers also killed his friend, Nadia Vera, two of her roommates – a 19-year-old aspiring makeup artist and a woman believed to be from Colombia – as well as their 40-year-old housekeeper.
If so, the killers would have had between 30 and 50 minutes to tie up five people, commit the horrific abuse, shoot them in the head and ransack their belongings, leaving the building less than an hour later, one with a suitcase.
On Tuesday, authorities released security camera footage that appeared to show three men near the building where the killings took place.
Vera had been active in organising protests for various causes in Veracruz.
“We hold Governor Javier Duarte Ochoa and all of his Cabinet responsible for anything that might happen to us, those involved in organizing these types of movements”, Vera said in an interview months before her death. He also worked for other local agencies and covered social protests.
Press freedom group Article 19 said Veracruz, where 13 journalists have been murdered and three others disappeared since 2011, is the most risky place to be a journalist in the Americas.
The IFJ said that it was particularly worrying that this was the first time a journalist fleeing persecution in other states had been murdered in the capital.
He was among the many Mexican journalists who had fled to the capital after receiving threats in their home towns.
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The murder of the photojournalist unleashed a wave of outrage and highlighted the sometimes unsafe situation for journalists in Mexico.
