A Mexican journalist under government protection was on Tuesday shot dead in Veracruz state, officials said, the 10th journalist murdered in Mexico this year.
Candido Rios, a crime reporter for a regional newspaper, was gunned down outside a convenience store in the town of Hueyapan de Ocampo along with two other people, including a former police inspector, police sources said.
Rios, 55, had been under a government program designed to protect journalists and rights activists from a wave of deadly violence, Veracruz State Commission for the Protection of Journalists head Jorge Morales said.
More than 100 journalists have been murdered since 2006 in Mexico, one of the deadliest countries in the world for the profession, watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said, adding that more than 90 percent of the killings remain unpunished.
Rios was well-known locally for his decade-long career at the Diario de Acayucan, where he reported on crime and government corruption and had publicly feuded with several former mayors.
The newspaper’s editor, Cecilio Perez, said Rios had received death threats from one former mayor, Gaspar Gomez.
“That mayor used to order him arrested and beaten, and would send him death threats. The threats made him quit journalism for a while, but he came back,” Perez told reporters.
Perez described Rios as a born journalist — a country boy who grew up poor and only finished middle school, but talked his way into a job as a local correspondent, with a dual role as newspaper vendor.
Despite his humble background, “Pabuche,” as he was known, made a name for himself with hard-hitting, detail-packed reports on organized crime and the misdeeds of public officials.
Rios was on his way back from writing at an Internet cafe when he was killed, Perez said.
The other victims were Victor Acrelio Alegria, a former police inspector in Hueyapan de Ocampo, and a third person who had not yet been identified.
The gunmen opened fire with high-powered weapons, killing Acrelio on the spot and badly wounding Rios, who died on the way to a hospital, police sources said.
Veracruz, a state dogged by drug cartel wars and corrupt politics, is particularly deadly for journalists: about 20 have been murdered there since 2010.
“Veracruz remains the most dangerous state to practice journalism,” said Ana Cristina Ruelas, head of media rights group Article 19.
“As long as there is no justice in these cases ... attacks on the press in Veracruz will continue unabated,” she told reporters.
Officials did not immediately disclose what sort of protection Rios had received under the so-called Mechanism to Protect Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.
The federal protection program, launched in 2012, offers different forms of protection ranging from bodyguards to panic buttons for journalists and activists who have been the victims of threats or attacks for their work.
It has been widely criticized for failing to stop the violence, which has only increased since its creation.
Last year was the deadliest yet for journalists in Mexico, with 11 murders.
This year could be on track to surpass it, with 10 killed so far: Cecilio Pineda, Ricardo Monlui, Miroslava Breach, Maximino Rodriguez, Javier Valdez, Salvador Adame, Jonathan Rodriguez, Edwin Rivera, Luciano Rivera and now Rios.
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