This journalist and newspaper editor has been shot dead as he left a restaurant by an armed gang and a police officer who was part of his security detail was also killed.
Journalist Jorge Miguel Armenta Avalos was attacked and killed whilst leaving a restaurant on Saturday afternoon in the city centre of Ciudad Obregon, in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora.
Armenta Avalos, who was an editor at local newspapers Medios Obson and El Tiempo, had a security detail made up of police officers after he had received death threats.
One of the officers, Orlando Antonio Ruvalcaba Flores, was killed when the armed gang opened fire from a white SUV whilst another named Cruz Rafael was injured.
The General Prosecution of the State of Sonora said that the injured officer was being treated by doctors.
Bullet casings of different calibres were found at the scene along with two vehicles believed to have been used in the attack.
Prosecutor Claudia Contreras said that the authorities will be “meticulous” in their investigation into the double murder, adding: “We will investigate the families as well as the personal and professional lives of each of the people who were victims of this aggression.”
Armenta Avalos becomes the third journalist killed in Mexico this year and human rights organisation Articulo 19 report that at least 132 journalists have been murdered in the country since 2000.
Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists and Articulo 19 reports 13 reporters have been killed under the regime of current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which began in December 2018.
Colleagues of the murdered journalist have called for justice whilst his relatives and friends attended his funeral at the Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe church.
The investigation is ongoing and no arrests have yet been made.
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Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
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