Reporters Without Borders is shocked to learn that the body David Niño de Guzmán, a journalist who had been missing since 19 April, was found yesterday in La Paz. An explosive charge was apparently used to kill him. Residents in the area where the body was found heard an explosion in the early hours of the morning after he disappeared, the police chief said.

Niño was the head of Agencia de Noticias Fides (ANF), Bolivia’s oldest and most important news agency. Aged 42, married and the father for two children, he had worked for 16 years as a journalist for newspapers such as Última Hora, La Razón, El Diario and Presencia and the TV station Canal 36-Cadena A.

Reporters Without Borders, which offers its condolences to his family, friends and colleagues, urges investigators not to rule out the possibility that he was killed in connection with his work. Those responsible for this appalling crime was be identified and brought to justice as soon as possible.