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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled by a sudden acceleration in the spiral of violence in Mexico, with three journalists murdered in the space of ten days, bringing the total number
of journalists killed this year to eight. The latest victim was ISRAEL VÁZQUEZ RANGEL, 31, a journalist who covered crime for _El Salamantino_, a local online news outlet in Salamanca, in
the central state of Guanajuato. He died of his injuries on 9 November, a few hours after being shot by two unidentified men who were probably waiting for him when, acting on a police
tip-off, he went to the place where human remains had reportedly just been found. JESÚS ALFONSO PIÑUELAS MONTES, 43, a freelance journalist also known as “El Norris,” was gunned down on
the evening of 2 November while travelling by motorcycle in Cajeme, a district in Ciudad Obregón regarded as one of the most violent and dangerous places in the entire northwestern state of
Sonora. Piñuelas worked for several regional media including the _Televisora del Pacífico_ TV channel, the _Regional de Sonora_ newspaper and the _Agencia ICE_ news agency. He also had his
own online news outlets,Zarathustra Prensa__ and _El Shock de la Noticia_, in which he covered general news and crime, He was also a photographer and, according to the Sonora prosecutor’s
office, had worked as a security guard in addition to his journalistic activities and had been preparing to become a deliverer in the fast food sector. ARTURO ALBA MEDINA, 49, a
journalist who anchored the main news programme on _Canal 6_, a TV channel owned by the Multimedios Televisión group in Ciudad Juárez, in the north-central state of Chihuahua, was shot dead
by two gunmen as he drove away from the TV studios on the evening of 29 October. _Canal 6_ programme director Raymundo Chagoyán told RSF that Alba was “_a quiet man who never had any
problems with anyone_.” He was also the spokesman of the Ciudad Juárez Technology Institute and had previously worked for other local media. In his _Canal 6_ news programme, he often covered
violent crime and local political corruption. “_We urge both the local and federal authorities to shed all possible light on these execution-style murders and to prioritize the hypothesis
that the victims were killed in connection with their work as journalists_,” said Emmanuel Colombié, the head of RSF’s Latin America bureau. “_In the states that are hit hardest by
corruption and organized crime, journalists are always more vulnerable and exposed to reprisals. The Mexican government needs to take stock of the scale of this violence and take courageous
decisions in order to end the persecution of journalists, which has tragic consequences for Mexican society in its entirety_.” Two journalists meanwhile sustained serious gunshot injuries
when police used force and opened fire to disperse a feminist demonstration on 9 November in Cancún, in the southern, Caribbean-coast state of Quintana Roo. They were CECILIA SOLÍS of the
_Diario de Quintana_, a regional newspaper, and ROBERTO BECERRIL of the news website _La Verdad_. Two other journalists, SANTIAGO RODAS of the news agency _Quadratín_ and SELENE HUIDROBO of
_Sipse TVCUN_, were roughed up by police. The five other journalists murdered this year in Mexico were JULIO VALDIVIA RODRÍGUEZ, PABLO MORRUGARES, VÍCTOR FERNANDO ÁLVAREZ CHÁVEZ, JORGE
MIGUEL ARMENTA ÁVALOS and MARIA ELENA FERRAL HERNÁNDEZ. At least ten journalists were killed in connection with their work in 2019 in Mexico, making it the world’s deadliest country for the
media. Mexico is ranked 143rd out of 180 countries in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.