Journalist Found Murdered In Veracruz Amid Mexico's Worsening Cartel Violence

Another journalist has been killed in the Mexican state of Veracruz, bringing the total to at least five in a span of two months, according to the Associated Press.

Víctor Manuel Baez Chino covered crime for the local branch of Milenio, a daily national newspaper.

Baez was leaving the newspaper offices on Wednesday when he was abducted by armed men. Mexican authorities found his body on Thursday, left on a street in the state capital of Xalapa. There is so far no report of any arrests.

Veracruz has seen an upswing in drug cartel-related violence in recent months as Los Zetas, widely considered the most dangerous cartel in Mexico due to the fact that many of its hitmen are trained military veterans, vies for control of the country's most lucrative trafficking routes.

Many journalists have left Veracruz to escape the violence, reports Reuters, but Baez refused to be intimidated.

We cannot and should not live in fear and darkness. We won't let them impose terror on us, he said in the months before his murder, according to his friend Gina Dominguez, a government spokeswoman.