Veracruz state has a new newspaper, scarcely 30 days old, called El Buen Tono. One would think that with less than a month in operation, it wouldn't have had time to offend anyone. But about 12:15 a.m. today, a group of 15 men drove up to the newspaper's facility, walked to the front door, threatened a security guard and forced their way in. They began spreading gasoline throughout the premises, lit it and then fled. None of the 20 employees on duty was injured, but the building suffered heavy smoke and fire damage.
The newspaper is owned by José Abella García, a PAN (National Action Party) politician and former mayoral candidate. "We're an investigative paper, but we've only been around 30 days, we haven't published anything particularly controversial yet, and we haven't said anything bad about anyone," he told reporters.
Javier Duarte is the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) governor of Veracruz. He has been heavily criticized in recent weeks for the severe ongoing violence in the state, where nearly 100 drug cartel executions having occurred in the last 60 days. Read these recent posts about Duarte: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/make-believe-world-of-veracruz-governor.html; and: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/09/veracruz-governor-javier-duarte-man-out.html.
The arson case is under investigation by the state prosecutor's office.
Previous story on threats to free press: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/11/organized-crime-hostile-governments.html.
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