A Mexican activist who had accused police of kidnapping his son has been shot dead in northern Mexico. Nepomuceno Moreno had been a vocal member of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, which has campaigned against rampant crime and corruption in Mexico’s drug war. He was shot at least five times on Monday while driving his car. An activist who worked with Moreno said Moreno had only recently met with Mexican President Felipe Calderón, telling him he needed protection out of fear for his life.

Pietro Ameglio: “This is undignified and embarrassing for a man who asks for justice for a son who disappeared over a year ago, a son who has been jailed with invented charges, as he showed. His daughter was fired from a job in the government. And there’s the fact that he was killed in the middle of town after having asked the president for protection one month before.”