Mexican photojournalist found dead after kidnapping

A photojournalist who received threats over his work has been found dead in northern Mexico a day after he was kidnapped, officials said Friday, making him the 11th journalist killed in the country this year.

The government's Mechanism to Protect Journalists and Rights Activists called for an "immediate and effective investigation" into the killing of Edgar Daniel Esqueda Castro, 23, who was reportedly kidnapped Thursday by gunmen posing as police officers in the city of San Luis Potosi.

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There were immediate protests in Mexico, which drug wars and corruption have made one of the most dangerous countries in the world for the press, according to rights groups.

Esqueda's body was found dumped near the San Luis Potosi airport, bound and bearing signs of torture, according to local media reports and the rights group Reporters Without Borders.

His wife told the press freedom watchdog that gunmen claiming to be police had burst into their home while they slept early Thursday, thrown Esqueda to the floor and then hauled him away at gunpoint.

Prosecutors said Thursday that no actual police were suspected in the crime.

But San Luis Potosi Governor Juan Manuel Carreras told a press conference Friday that one line of investigation included the possible involvement of "public officials."

The federal protection program said Esqueda, who worked for the daily newspaper Metropoli San Luis and the news website Vox Populi, had recently told authorities that state police had threatened and harassed him while he was working.

He said five police officers had threatened to beat him up and take his camera while he photographed the scene of a shootout on July 4, forcing him to delete his photos.