Reporter Israel Vázquez assassinated; third Mexican journalist killed in 2 weeks

Mexico, City, November 12 (RHC)-- In Mexico, 31-year-old journalist Israel Vázquez was shot to death in Salamanca, Guanajuato, just minutes before going live on air to report from a crime scene where human remains had been found.  He is the third journalist killed in Mexico in the past two weeks.  

Journalist Veronica Espinoza joined a protest demanding Vázquez’s killers be brought to justice.  She told reporters: “We don’t want any more numbers.  We don’t want to count our dead colleagues.  We don’t want this to be an unsolved case, because this is a message we don’t want to give in Guanajuato. Journalists don’t want to become victims here.  We want to keep doing our jobs.”

Mexico is one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists, as violence skyrocketed since the launch of a U.S.-backed war on drugs in 2006.  About 250,000 people have since been killed, including dozens of Mexican journalists.