MEXICO CITY — The Mexican nationwide newspaper La Jornada stated Saturday that its employees reporter within the Pacific coast state of Nayarit has been discovered lifeless.

The physique of journalist Luis Martín Sánchez Iñiguez was discovered on the outskirts of the state capital, Tepic, La Jornada reported.

Sánchez Iñiguez, 59, had been lacking since Wednesday and an enchantment had been made to search out him, the Nayarit state prosecutors’ workplace stated. The journalist’s spouse reported him lacking, together with a pc and his cellphone.

The workplace stated later Saturday that family had recognized Sánchez Iñiguez’s physique, and stated he had been lifeless for one or two days earlier than the corpse was discovered.

“The body was found with signs of violence, and two handwritten signs were found on it,” prosecutors stated in a press release, however didn’t reveal what the messages stated.

Handwritten indicators are ceaselessly left by drug cartels with the our bodies of victims, however the workplace stated the motive within the killing was nonetheless underneath investigation.

Sánchez Iñiguez was final seen in Xalisco, a Nayarit city that has lengthy been linked to the smuggling of heroin and opium.

He can be not less than the second journalist killed in Mexico this 12 months.

In February, information photographer José Ramiro Araujo was stabbed and overwhelmed to loss of life within the northern Mexico border state of Baja California.

The 12 months 2022 was among the many deadliest ever for Mexican media employees, with 15 killed.

Just two days after Sánchez Iñiguez disappeared, one other journalist was kidnapped in the identical space. Jonathan Lora Ramírez was kidnapped on Friday by “armed, masked men who arrived at his home in Xalisco, forced open the door and took him away,” state prosecutors stated.

Lora Ramírez was discovered alive and in good situation Saturday, prosecutors stated.

The prosecutors’ workplace stated a 3rd media employee, recognized as Osiris Maldonado, has been lacking since July 3. Maldonado apparently labored in graphic design at La Jornada.

Prosecutors stated they had been investigating the chance the abductions and killing had been associated to the journalists’ career.

The Committee to Protect Journalists stated it “strongly condemns the killing of journalist Luis Martín Sánchez Iñíguez, correspondent of newspaper La Jornada, in the state of Nayarit, and calls on Mexican authorities to immediately and credibly investigate.”