Journalists Juan Francisco Rodríguez Ríos and Maria Elvira Hernández Galeana were killed Monday evening in Coyuca de Benitez, a town located near the resort city of Acapulco in Mexico’s Guerrero state, according to local news reports.
Rios worked for the newspaper El Sol de Acupulco and for Diario Objetivo de Chilpancingo as well as for the National Union of Press Editors, according to a report in La Vanguardia. Galeana, 37, worked as a freelancer, and also accompanied her husband, who was 51, as a photographer, according to Inter-American Press Association spokesperson Melba Jimenez.
The pair was shot dead by two unknown gunmen inside the premises of an Internet café that they also owned, reports say. Their eight year-old son, who was also in the café at the time of the attack, survived, Jimenez told IPI.
The murder has been condemned by the Inter-American Press Association and the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico, who called for a prompt investigation into the crime.
“IPI joins journalists and press freedom groups in Mexico in calling for a speedy investigation and prosecution of this terrible crime,” said IPI Deputy Director Alison Bethel-McKenzie. “It is unacceptable that Mexican journalists must operate under the constant threat of attack. The murders will not end if the killers always get away.”
Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists. As the government loses its battle against organized crime and the drug trade, reporters covering corruption and crime often become victims themselves; the killers are almost never found or prosecuted. The killing of Rios and Galeana brings the total number of journalists killed in Mexico this year to seven, according to the IPI Death Watch.