Mexico: 9th Mexican Journalist Killed This Year Found Wrapped in Black Bag on Sinaloa Road

Another Mexican journalist was killed in northern Mexico on Thursday. Authorities said Luis Enrique Ramirez Ramos was the ninth media worker murdered in the country this year.

According to The Los Angeles Times, the prosecutors in Sinaloa state confirmed that the body found wrapped in a black bag on a dirt road near Culiacan was Ramirez Ramos.

The 59-year-old Mexican journalist had been abducted near his house before he was found dead, his news website, Fuentes Fidedignas, or Reliable Sources, said.

Ramirez Ramos is listed as the "founding director" of the website. It has reported relatively little on the drug cartel violence that affects Sinaloa.

However, Fuentes Fidedignas usually reports on local political disputes, which is often a dangerous subject for reporters in provincial Mexico.

The media outlet also has a section on "good news" about Sinaloa, covering "the industrious, hardworking, and generous nature that our good people give the state." Its mission statement said they denounce "vices and corruption."

Francisco Chiquete, a fellow reporter in Culiacan, described his colleague as a "very professional and capable journalist." He noted that the slain journalist had expressed fears about retaliation for his work since 2015.

However, Chiquete said he was unaware of any recent threats against Ramirez Ramos. According to initial police reports, the Mexican journalist died from traumatic brain injury as a result of multiple violent blows to the head.

Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Slain Mexican Journalist

Presidential spokesperson Jesus Cuevas tweeted Thursday afternoon that the federal government would work with state and local governments to investigate Luis Enrique Ramirez Ramos' death, Reuters reported. Cuevas said they would also reinforce security measures for journalists.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has already promised a "zero impunity" program to investigate the killings of journalists in Mexico.

According to an Article 19 report published last month, violence against journalists has spiked amid Lopez Obrador's administration. Thirty-four Mexican journalists have already been killed during Lopez Obrador's administration. This count includes Ramirez Ramos.

In February, U.S. senators Tim Kaine and Marco Rubio called on the United States to urge Mexico to do more to protect journalists. They criticized the Mexican president for lashing out against his critics in the media.

Attacks on Mexican Journalists in Mexico

Alejandro Moreno and Marko Cortes, leaders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party or Partido de Acción Nacional (PAN), criticized the administration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after the death of Luis Enrique Ramirez Ramos was announced.

"How long will this inept government understand that its message of hatred towards the press puts the lives of journalists at risk? Today, one more family mourns the death of a citizen that the only thing he did was do his job," Moreno tweeted.

"It is urgent to change the course of the country , we cannot live with so much violence and insecurity. Mexico has become one of the most dangerous countries to exercise freedom of the press," Cortes wrote on Twitter.

Mexico's National Human Rights Commission has condemned the murder of Ramirez Ramos and urged the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists to quickly adopt comprehensive strategies to address violence against journalists, Infobae reported.

Last March, Armando Lopez Linares, the director of the Monitor Michoacan news website, was reportedly shot at least eight times outside his home in Zitácuaro in Michoacan state.

The Guardian reported that he was the eighth Mexican journalist killed this year, compared with nine in the whole of last year. Other journalists murdered in the country include Heber Lopez, Margarito Martinez Esquivel, Lourdes Maldonado Lopez, Jose Luis Gamboa, Roberto Toledo, Juan Carlos Muñiz, and Jorge Camero.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: At Least Five Journalists Killed In Mexico - From NBC News