Post date: May 08, 2013 9:49:42 AM
Mourners pay their final respects to the murdered sons of two top Mexican journalists as authorities arrest a suspect linked to the killings that officials report are drug-related.
CHIHUAHUA, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO (MAY 07, 2013) (REUTERS) - The bodies of the sons of two top Mexican journalists were laid to rest in the violence-plagued border state of Chihuahua on Tuesday (May 07) just days after they were shot dead by unknown assailants in the northern state of Chihuahua.
Twenty-year-old Alfredo Paramo and 21-year-old Diego Paramo were shot dead in Chihuahua early on Saturday (May 04) after being chased through the streets by gunmen in a car.They are the sons of well-known Mexican financial journalist David Paramo, who hosts a radio show, appears on TV Azteca and has a national newspaper column, and Martha Gonzalez, the editor of the local El Peso newspaper.
Chihuahua Governor Cesar Duarte reported a breakthrough in the murder case on Tuesday (May 07) with the arrest of a suspect into the killings.
Duarte told media victim Diego Paramo was reportedly killed because of a large drug debt.
"Today at 1500 (suspect) Jonathan Lozoya was arrested, 25 years of age. He was a friend of Diego Alejandro Paramo Gonzalez. This individual maintained communication during the night, sent mobile phone messages, which stopped ten minutes before the murders of the Paramo Gonzalez men. Upon his detention he declared that he was the perpetrator of this murder for the debt of $10,000 pesos (some $800 U.S.) that Diego Alejandro owed for drugs put on the market," he said.
The northern border state of Chihuahua is a drug-trafficking hotspot with the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels fighting for control of rich trafficking routes through the area.
Roughly 70,000 people have died in drug-related killings since a military-led campaign against drug traffickers was launched in 2006. More than 4,200 have died in the first four months of new President Enrique Pena Nieto's term, a slower pace than early 2012.