Mexican journalist shot dead while under police protection

A Mexican journalist covering violent crime has been killed while under police protection.

Alejandro Martinez was shot by unidentified gunmen while riding in a car with two security guards in the central state of Guanajuato.

Mr. Martinez, known as the “Son of the Lone Ranger,” died in hospital from gunshot wounds he received in the attack.

Reporters Without Borders notes that Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, with more than 150 media workers killed in Mexico since 1994.

Martinez, who is in his 50s, runs a popular news organization on Facebook that has more than 340,000 followers.

He has been under police protection after a similar attack in 2022.

Local authorities said the attackers opened fire from a pickup truck at a vehicle carrying the journalist and his bodyguards.

The bodyguards fought back but were unable to save the journalist, who was shot in the head, a police source told AFP.

According to sources, a woman in another car was also injured by a stray bullet.

Three years ago, Martinez said in an interview that he felt great pain and sadness witnessing the devastation caused by the escalating violence in the area.

“He is a journalist in danger,” Balbina Flores of Reporters Without Borders Mexico told AFP.

He was assigned bodyguards under a federal program for journalists who receive death threats, an administration official said.

His shooting was the latest in a series of deadly attacks on journalists.

Earlier this month, journalist Federico Hans was shot and wounded as he got into his car outside his home in the town of Caborca ​​in the northern state of Sonora.

Victor Cullebro was found dead on a highway in the southern state of Chiapas on June 29.