Photojournalist Shot Dead in Notoriously Violent Mexican Border City

Photographer Killed in Violent Mexican Border City

November 17, 2023 TruthUSA

A Mexican photojournalist was fatally shot in the driver’s seat of his car while working a second job in the notoriously violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez on Nov. 16, prosecutors said.

The body of Ismael Villagómez was found at around 1:30 a.m. in the vehicle, identified as a gray Hyundai Elantra, in the Fronteriza Alta neighborhood in western Juárez, according to police.

He had been working a second job as a ride-share driver at the time of his death, authorities and his employer said. Police are currently probing whether or not his death was related to his profession as a journalist.

Mr. Villagómez was a photographer for the newspaper El Heraldo de Juárez and had 18 years of experience in the news sector, according to reports.

“Once his work at El Heraldo was over, he worked through the [ride-hailing] platform inDrive,” local prosecutor Carlos Manuel Salas told journalists. “He would normally work from the afternoon until 2 a.m., 3 a.m.”

InDrive said it was complying with authorities’ requests as part of the investigation.

“We’re concerned, sad, angry,” said Jose Ramon Ortiz, director of the newspaper where Mr. Villagómez worked. “We don’t want this to be like what has happened with the deaths of other journalists. We want, whether the motive was journalistic or related to something else, to have clarity.”

There was a documented attack in Mexico against the press recorded every 13 hours in 2022, according to advocacy group Article 19.

5 Journalists Killed in Mexico This Year

The photographer’s death was condemned by Mexican and international journalism and press freedom organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which called on authorities to urgently investigate the killing.

There have been 152 journalists and media workers killed in Mexico since 1992, including 14 killed in the past year alone, according to CPJ.

Mexico remains one of the world’s most dangerous and deadly countries for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit organization focused on safeguarding the right to freedom of information.

The city of Ciudad Juárez, where Mr. Villagómez’s body was discovered, sits across the border from El Paso, Texas, and has been plagued by drug cartels and turf battles for nearly two decades.

In January, 14 people were killed and dozens more injured when gunmen in armored vehicles attacked a state prison in the city on New Year’s Day.

Human traffickers are also believed to operate widely in the area. Last week, police found 11 Guatemalan migrants trapped inside a house in the city.

Mr. Villagómez’s death is the fifth killing of a journalist in Mexico so far in 2023.

In September, veteran crime reporter Jesús Gutiérrez Vergara, founder and editor of the news website Notiface, was killed by shots fired from a vehicle in the northern Mexico border town of San Luis Río Colorado. Police believe Mr. Vergara was caught in the crossfire during an attack on police.

“With the brutal killing of Jesús Gutiérrez, Mexico continues its long and tragic streak as the Western Hemisphere’s deadliest country for journalists,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative, in a statement at the time. “Although the arrest of three suspects one day after the attack is a welcome move in a country where the vast majority of press killings go unpunished, it is vital that authorities determine the motive behind the shootings and whether there was any link to Gutiérrez’s work.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

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