A 59-year-old journalist has been found killed in western Mexico after his wife reported him missing last week. His murder comes as Mexico continues to rank as one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists.

Luis Martín Sánchez Iñiguez was a correspondent with the national newspaper La Jornada in the western state of Nayarit.

His wife reported him missing last Friday after she said she lost contact with him on Wednesday and noticed that that his work equipment, including his laptop, hard drive and press card, had disappeared from his home. State prosecutors have confirmed that his body, showing signs of violence, was found near the capital city of Tepic Saturday night. Two cardboard signs with handwritten messages had been left with his remains.

Officials have not released any information about what the signs said but are investigating the murder as potentially linked to his work.

“Journalists are uniquely visible and uniquely vulnerable because of the nature of their work,” said Jan Albert Hoostsen, the Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Reporters in small, rural communities are the most likely to be targets of violence, he said, because they are very present and identifiable in their communities. But reporters across Mexico also face violence, disappearances and harassment as well as surveillance and public attacks by government officials, including President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, seeking to discredit their work.

Last year, a record-breaking 15 journalists were killed in Mexico.

Journalists and activists planned a protest Monday night to demand government action to end violence and impunity against journalists.