José Antonio García

José Antonio García Apac, also known as "El Chino", was a Mexican journalist and editor for the Ecos de la Cuenca in Tepalcatepec, Michoacán, Mexico, when he disappeared 20 November 2006. He is best known for the news stories he published on the violent relationship between the drug cartels in his home state and its authorities. He was one of six missing journalists between 2005 and 2006.

Personal José Antonio García was married to Rosa Isela Caballero, with whom he had six children. Caballero is convinced her husband's disappearance was a direct result of his work at Ecos de la Cuenca.

In 2012 his son Aldo García Caballero released a film, El Último Día, which was about drugs in Michoacán. His film made the final selection for the Michoacán section of El Festival de Cine y Video Ingenia in 2012.

Career García was the founder and editor of Ecos de la Cuenca in Tepalcatepec. His weekly newspaper ran stories about the drug trafficking and the police's involvement in the drug activity six months before his disappearance.

Disappearance García was somewhere between Tepalcatepec and Buenavista Tomatlan and on his way to Morelia to see his family when he disappeared on 20 November 2006. On the way, he called his family around 8 p.m. to ask about groceries and was speaking on the phone with his son when his son heard voices on the other end of the line that told García to hang up. Noises sounding like García being dragged away were heard before the line went dead for his son.

Later, news about the delays reached President Felipe Calderón, who intervened and asked the federal anti-kidnapping unit to investigate. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office re-opened the investigation in January 2008 and then again in March 2008, but eventually also stopped working on the case due to the lack of information.

The CPJ says that news outlets begin to practice self-censorship of crime news, which is one of the drug cartel's objectives.

Reactions Reporters Without Borders condemned Garcia's disappearance and the increase in violence at the time: "Not a week has gone by since the end of October without a journalist disappearing or being murdered in Mexico," Reporters Without Borders said. "García Apac's disappearance makes us fear the worst as he was working as a journalist in Michoacán state, where drug traffickers do not hesitate to decapitate rivals or critics."

On 9 July 2010, 150 journalists marched through Morelia to protest impunity in cases of murders and disappearances in the state of Michoacán, including the García case.

In 2012, García's wife told the BBC News, "When they kill a loved one, at least you have the body," she says. "But when it's a disappearance, it's like a physical torture for us as family members."