In Mexico, the authorities have announced the death of two Mexican journalists who were shot dead in less than 24 hours in western states. This incident is coning even as the country is suffering a surge of violence in the region.
The state persecutor’s office had informed Reuters that a Mexican journalist was shot dead in the western state of Colima on Wednesday afternoon.
The prosecutor, Patricia Ramirez (also known by her nickname Paty Bunbury), had worked as an entertainment reporter, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based rights group had said.
Not up to 24 hours later, the second journalist was shot dead in Mexico – a country that has been ranked as one of the deadliest countries for journalists by press freedom groups, after the head of an online news outlet in Mexico was killed on Tuesday evening.
The killings signified the first of a journalist under President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office at the beginning of this month and has promised to fight violence and crime.
Mauricio Cruz was gunned down in the city of Uruapan, a western state known for its violence, according to the state prosecutor’s office. Another person, who the prosecutor did not identify, was injured during the shooting.
Uruapan is notorious for its brazen crimes such as beheadings from conflict between drugs cartels or face-offs with law enforcement.
Cruz’s news outlet, MinutoXMinuto Michoacan, has already taken to his Facebook page to post a tribute to the journalist featuring his last live video recorded minutes before his death.
Even as the nation has been plagued by a wave of violence, the Mexican president, Sheinbaum has toed the path of her predecessor and mentor, former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, saying that her government would not wage a new war on Mexico’s drug cartels.
More details to come later…
