- Title: Journalist killed by gunmen in Mexican state of Veracruz
- Date: 23rd August 2017
- Summary: BLOODSTAIN WOMAN PRAYING AT SITE WHERE RIOS WAS KILLED
- Embargoed: 6th September 2017 19:34
- Keywords: Veracruz journalist Candido Rios murdered Diario Acayucan
- Location: HUEYAPAN DE OCAMPO, VERACRUZ STATE, MEXICO
- City: HUEYAPAN DE OCAMPO, VERACRUZ STATE, MEXICO
- Country: Mexico
- Reuters ID: LVA0066VDQ4W3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Gunmen shot dead a reporter in the violent Mexican state of Veracruz on Tuesday (August 22), authorities said, bringing to at least nine the number of journalists killed in the country this year.
Reporter Candido Rios and two other men died after being shot by the unknown assailants in the municipality of Hueyapan in the south of Veracruz, local police said in a statement.
Rios, who worked at the newspaper Diario Acayucan, had reported threats against his life and was registered on a national program to protect journalists, said Jorge Morales, head of a local media protection group known as the CEAPP.
A spokesman for the state attorney general's office in Veracruz said it was investigating the killing of Rios but declined to give details over what motivated the attack.
Veracruz, a state in the Gulf of Mexico with important trafficking routes fought over by drug gangs, has become notorious for the murder of journalists in the past few years.
According to a tally kept by Article 19, a freedom of expression advocacy group, eight journalists had been killed in Mexico during 2017 before the death of Rios. Murders have risen significantly in Mexico during the past couple of years, and 2017 is on course to be the bloodiest year on record. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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