Current:Home > ContactPhotographer found shot to death in violence plagued Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez -Keystone Wealth Vision
Photographer found shot to death in violence plagued Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez
Surpassing Quant Think Tank Center View
Date:2025-04-09 21:58:23
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A photographer for a newspaper in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, which has been dominated by drug cartels, was found shot to death, prosecutors said Thursday.
The body of news photographer Ismael Villagómez was found in the driver’s seat of a car just after midnight Thursday in Ciudad Juarez, a violence-plagued city across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Villagómez’s newspaper, the Heraldo de Juarez, said he was found dead in a car that he had registered to use for work for a ride-hailing app. Given low salaries, it is not uncommon for journalists in Mexico to hold down more than one job. The newspaper said his phone was not found at the scene.
Ciudad Juarez has been dominated by drug cartels and their turf battles for almost two decades, and gangs often object to photos of their victims or their activities being published.
Carlos Manuel Salas, a prosecutor for the northern border state of Chihuahua, said authorities are investigating whether Villagómez had a fare at the time, or whether the killing was related to his work as a photographer.
The Committee to Protect Journalists made an urgent call for authorities to investigate the killing.
His death was the fifth instance of a journalist being killed in Mexico so far in 2023.
In September, Jesús Gutiérrez, a journalist who ran a community Facebook news page, was killed in the northern Mexico border town of San Luis Rio Colorado when he was apparently caught in the cross-fire of an attack aimed at police.
Prosecutors in the northern border state of Sonora said Gutiérrez was talking with the police officers, who were his neighbors, when they were hit by a hail of gunfire, killing one policeman and wounding the other three. They said Gutiérrez’ death was “collateral” to the attack on the police.
At least three other journalists have been killed so far this year in Mexico, which has become one of the deadliest places in the world for journalists outside a war zone.
In the past five years alone, the Committee to Protect Journalists documented the killings of at least 52 journalists in Mexico.
Last year was the deadliest in recent memory for Mexican journalists, with 15 killed. That year, Mexico was one of the deadliest places in the world for journalists, second only to Ukraine.
veryGood! (6)
Related
- 'No Good Deed': Who's the killer in the Netflix comedy? And will there be a Season 2?
- Businessman Who Almost Went on OceanGate Titanic Dive Reveals Alleged Texts With CEO on Safety Concerns
- A surprise-billing law loophole? Her pregnancy led to a six-figure hospital bill
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. condemned over false claims that COVID-19 was ethnically targeted
- See you latte: Starbucks plans to cut 30% of its menu
- Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warns inflation fight will be long and bumpy
- Inside Clean Energy: The Solar Boom Arrives in Ohio
- Indigenous Land Rights Are Critical to Realizing Goals of the Paris Climate Accord, a New Study Finds
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
- Berta Cáceres’ Murder Shocked the World in 2016, But the Killing of Environmental Activists Continues
Ranking
- Sarah J. Maas books explained: How to read 'ACOTAR,' 'Throne of Glass' in order.
- Businessman Who Almost Went on OceanGate Titanic Dive Reveals Alleged Texts With CEO on Safety Concerns
- Despite high inflation, Americans are spending like crazy — and it's kind of puzzling
- As Russia’s War In Ukraine Disrupts Food Production, Experts Question the Expanding Use of Cropland for Biofuels
- Why we love Bear Pond Books, a ski town bookstore with a French bulldog 'Staff Pup'
- Heat wave sweeping across U.S. strains power grid: People weren't ready for this heat
- Charting a Course to Shrink the Heat Gap Between New York City Neighborhoods
- Shein lawsuit accuses fast-fashion site of RICO violations
Recommendation
What were Tom Selleck's juicy final 'Blue Bloods' words in Reagan family
Jennifer Lawrence Hilariously Claps Back at Liam Hemsworth Over Hunger Games Kissing Critique
Transcript: Rep. Michael McCaul on Face the Nation, July 16, 2023
House escalates an already heated battle over federal government diversity initiatives
The Louvre will be renovated and the 'Mona Lisa' will have her own room
Tesla has a new master plan. It's not a new car — just big thoughts on planet Earth
Timeline: Early Landmark Events in the Environmental Justice Movement
Inside Clean Energy: Biden’s Oil Industry Comments Were Not a Political Misstep