A Mexican journalist who covered one of the country’s most dangerous crime beats was killed by gunmen Sunday, and two of his government-assigned bodyguards were wounded, authorities said.
The web news page operated by reporter Alejandro Martínez confirmed his death. The page covered community news and crime in Celaya, the most dangerous city for police officers in Mexico.
The Celaya police department said Martínez was shot to death by assailants travelling in another vehicle. The department said the two bodyguards were being treated for their wounds, but did not say what their condition was.
The government “extends its deepest condolences to his family, friends and loved ones,” Celaya officials said in a statement.
The journalist had been assigned police protection after he reported receiving threats. Prosecutors in the north-central state of Guanajuato said they were investigating the killing.
Martínez covered a fatal car accident on a dangerous stretch of highway just hours before he was attacked. His wounded bodyguards drove him to a hospital, where he died, authorities said.
Guanajuato has the highest number of homicides of any of Mexico’s 32 states, largely due to a years-long turf war between the Jalisco drug cartel and the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang. A total of 18 Celaya police officers have been shot to death so far this year in the city of a half million inhabitants. Drug gangs are suspected in most of those killings.
In addition to police and journalists, politicians and civilians have also been targeted in Guanajuato. In June, a baby and a toddler were among six members of the same family murdered in Guanajuato. In April, a mayoral candidate was shot dead in the street in Guanajuato just as she began campaigning.
In December, 11 people were killed and another dozen were wounded in an attack on a pre-Christmas party in the state. Just days before that, the bodies of five university students were found stuffed in a vehicle on a dirt road Guanajuato.
Media workers are regularly targeted in Mexico, often in direct reprisal for their work covering topics like corruption and the country’s notoriously violent drug traffickers.
In April, Roberto Figueroa, who covered local politics and gained a social media following through satirical videos, was found dead inside a car in his hometown of Huitzilac in Morelos, a state south of Mexico City where drug-fueled violence runs rampant.
Since 2000, 141 Mexican journalists and other media workers have been slain, at least 61 of them in apparent retaliation for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists says. 2022 was one of the deadliest years ever for journalists in Mexico, with at least 15 killed.
All but a handful of the killings and abductions remain unsolved.
“Impunity is the norm in crimes against the press,” the group said in its report on Mexico in March.