Mexico violence: Another two journalists found dead in Veracruz

The dismembered bodies of two photojournalists were found in Mexico’s eastern state of Veracruz today, less than a week after a magazine reporter was found dead in her home in the same state, Agence France-Presse reported.

The photojournalists, identified as Gabriel Huge and Guillermo Luna, were found dumped near a canal in Boca del Rio, a town near the port city of Veracruz, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Huge and Luna had covered crime stories for the Veracruznews photo agency and disappeared on Wednesday afternoon, AFP said.

Two other bodies were found in the same place. They have been identified as Esteban Rodriguez, who worked for a local newspaper until last year, and Irasema Becerra, Luna’s girlfriend, the Associated Press reported, citing state prosecutors. The bodies showed signs of torture, according to the LA Times.

The gruesome discovery on World Press Freedom Day brings to three the number of journalists who have been killed in violence-hit Veracruz in less than a week.

Regina Martinez, a crime reporter for national magazine Proceso, was found beaten and suffocated in her home in Xalapa last weekend, Buenos Aires Herald reported.

More from GlobalPost: Regina Martinez, Mexican crime reporter, found dead in Veracruz

According to the AP, Veracruz has been the scene of a brutal and deadly war between the paramilitary Zetas drug cartel and New Generation, a cartel based in the western state of Jalisco and allied with the Sinaloa cartel. 

In 2011 Reporters Without Borders described Veracruz as one of the deadliest places in the world for journalists. Scores of journalists have been killed in Mexico in the past decade as drug-related violence intensified.