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A Mexican journalist who also worked as a taxi driver has been shot dead in the southern state of Oaxaca, making him the ninth journalist killed in Mexico this year, according to press freedom group Article 19.
Getting into it: Hamurabi Huesca Manzano, the founder and director of Pinotepa Comunica, a news outlet with more than 52,000 followers covering politics and local issues on the Oaxaca coast, was killed Friday afternoon in Santiago Pinotepa Nacional when an armed group opened fire. According to the Oaxaca state prosecutor’s office, the attack targeted a man known as “El Darío,” whom authorities called one of the biggest drivers of violence in the area. Huesca Manzano was there to give him a ride in the taxi he drove for extra money.
Huesca Manzano died at the scene along with a third person, while El Darío died in the hospital hours later. Prosecutors say they’re mainly looking at a fight between rival gangs and that they know who the attackers are, but they haven’t released any names or said whether his reporting had anything to do with it. Accounts from local outlets don’t line up on where it happened, and some put the shooting at his house.
“We demand that the prosecutor’s office treat his journalistic work as a priority in its investigation,” Article 19 wrote on X.
Antonio Olmedo, mayor of nearby San Miguel Tlacamama, said he mourned Huesca Manzano’s death “with deep sorrow” and offered condolences to his family, friends and fellow reporters on the coast. Pinotepa Comunica’s last post went up just hours before the attack.
This all comes as Mexico remains one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists, with Reporters Without Borders counting more than 150 media workers killed there since 1994. It also follows the killing of journalist Francisco Alejandro Leyva, who was shot dead at a street stall in another part of Oaxaca just three months ago.
