Mexican police force detained, State prosecutors detained a town's police force Tuesday following the disappearance of a journalist in the southern state of Veracruz.
Thirty-six members of the Medellin de Bravo police department were brought in to give statements, according to a statement from the Veracruz state prosecutor's office. Authorities detained three police officers there Monday.
Prosecutors said the investigation is in an advanced stage and one of the lines of investigation is looking at the social activism of journalist Moises Sanchez Cerezo, some of which was aimed at Medellin Mayor Omar Cruz.
Sanchez's brother Juan Carlos Sanchez said Monday that his brother had been threatened by Cruz. Cruz denied any involvement at a news conference Monday.
A group of nine armed men took Sanchez from his home on Friday along with his computer, camera and telephones.
Sanchez publishes a local weekly, "La Union," which he has supported with his work as a cab driver. According to a reporters' group, Sanchez wrote principally about local government corruption and violent deaths and published citizen complaints.
The Inter American Press Association said that Sanchez was threatened several times last year "by the mayor and by people he was not able to identify."
Veracruz is one of the most dangerous states in Mexico for journalists, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Since 2011, at least three journalists have been killed for their work. The organization continues investigating the murders of at least six more in murky circumstances.
Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte de Ochoa, who entered office in 2010, has tried to minimize any link between the journalists' deaths and their work.
