MEXICO CITY, July 24, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A journalist has been murdered in
southeast Mexico, not far from tourist hotspot Cancun, the government said on
Tuesday — the seventh such killing this year in the country.
“Ruben Pat, manager at the Playa News weekly, was shot dead this morning”
in the Playa del Carmen area, the Quintana Roo state government announced.
Pat was the second journalist from Playa News based in Playa del Carmen,
which is located south of Cancun along the Caribbean Sea, murdered in less
than a month, after his colleague Jose Guadalupe Chan.
Prosecutors said Pat was shot at about 6:00 am outside a bar. Emergency
services pronounced him dead upon arriving at the scene.
Prosecutors said the incident was meant to “intimidate” other journalists.
Playa News demanded answers from the state government about Pat’s murder on
its Facebook page.
Mexico was the second most dangerous place in the world for journalists
last year, behind only civil war-torn Syria, with 11 murdered, according to
Reporters Without Borders.
According to various freedom of speech organizations, more than 100 have
been killed in the country since 2000.
The vast majority of those crimes have gone unpunished.
Journalism isn’t the only risky profession in Mexico.
Between September and presidential elections on July 1, at least 145
politicians were killed.
Five of the eight most violent cities in the world are located in Mexico,
according to government statistics for 2017.
Los Cabos in the country’s northwest topped that list with 111 murders per
100,000 citizens.