The murdered reporter was asked to delete an important tweet: "very exposed"

The President of Mexico Themurder of a reporterin the northern border of Tamauripas (12th so far this year in Mexico) was related to local politics, saying Thursday: May be there.

President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said the federal prosecutor had taken over the investigation into the murder of reporter Antonio de la Cruz as acrime against freedom of speech {87. }

De La Cruz was seriously injured in an attack in the capital of Tamaulipas on Wednesday and was fighting for her life at a local hospital.

On Thursday, one of the reporter's colleagues said Delacruz was apparently asked by the state. Authorities delete some of his tweets.

"On Twitter, Antonio criticized the state government and criticized the government," said reporter Carlos Manuel Juarez. "At some point he even said he had asked him to delete some of the important tweets he had made."

Juarez said after the Tamaulipas reporter was killed. I explained the fear I felt. The state has long been dominated by drug cartels.

"It's very dangerous not knowing where the attack came from, and my colleagues feel very exposed. I don't know if it's just a political issue," Juarez said. Said at a press conference in the morning of the president.

Lopez Obrador said, "Because of the criticism of the local authorities, a decision was made (by a federal prosecutor) to take over the case."

De la Cruz, 47, was a reporter for the local newspaper Expreso for almost 30 years.

On Thursday, the newspaper published a black print with a photo of Delacruz and the word "justice." On the front page.

"This is clearly an attack on free speech," said Miguel Dominguez, director of Expresso.

"We have lived in a state of violence for over a decade that has also affected the media," Dominguez said. "Unfortunately, we had to get used to working in this situation, take special precautions, and carefully consider whether to publish anything."

Tamaulipas Almost all of our recent governors face corruption charges, from money laundering to drug cartel support.

With the death of De la Cruz, the number of journalists killed in the country this year is twelve. This is the worst for the Mexican press and the worst for any country outside the war zone.

De La Cruz was shot by a man on a motorcycle in a car in front of his house in the capital city of Ciudad Victoria. His daughter was in the car with him and she was injured.

Expreso covers all kinds of news in the city, including security issues. De la Cruz reported on rural and social topics such as water scarcity.

He also took up the civil movement party and its local adjutant, Gustavo Cardenas Gutierrez, who accused the murder.

Expreso has been targeted for years. In 2012, one of the worst years of drug cartel violence, a car bomb exploded in front of a newspaper building. In 2018, a cooler with a human head inside was left in the newspaper and warned not to report violence in the city.

Another Mexican journalist killed in 2022

Last month, two colleagues on the news site were shot dead in the Gulf Province of Veracruz. The Veracruz Public Prosecutor's Office said it is investigating the killings of online news sites El Yessenia Mollinedo Falconi and Sheila Johana García Olivera. Veracruz of Cosoleacaque.

In March, a prosecutor in western Michoacan said reporters Armand de Brignacs were shot dead in a house in the town of Zitácuaro. .. .. His murder occurred six weeks after the murder of a colleague Roberto Toledofrom the same outlet, Monitor Michoacan. It was Linares who announced Toledo's death on January 31st in a video posted on social media.

In early March, shooters killed Juan Carlos Muñiz, who reported the crime on the online news site Testigo Minero in Zacatecas.

Jorge Camello, director of an online news site who until recently was a worker in a municipality in northern Sonora, was killed in late February.

In early February, Heber López, director of the online news site Noticias Web, was shot dead in southern Oaxaca.

Reporter Luludes Maldonadropes was found shot dead in her car in Tijuana on January 23. it was done. At her 2019 press conference, Maldonado Lopez told the Mexican president that she was afraid of her life.

Reporter Jose Luis Gamboa was killed on January 10 in the Gulf Province of Veracruz.

Criminal photographer Margarito Martinez was shot outside his Tijuana house on January 17th. Gillermo Arias, who took pictures of life and death in the city of Tijuana, has been working with Martinez for many years.

He recalled his painful experience reporting the murder of his friend and fellow journalist.

"His daughter arrived and asked me not to take a picture of her dad's body," Arias told CBS News.