MEXICO CITY -- A journalist was among three people killed inside a bar in central Mexico, the 13th media worker killed in the country this year.
Guanajuato Gov. Diego Rodríguez Vallejo condemned the Tuesday night killings of Ernesto Méndez and two others via Twitter Wednesday.
Press freedom organization Article 19 said that armed attackers stormed a bar owned by Méndez’s family in San Luis de la Paz late Tuesday.
Méndez was the director of the local outlet Tu Voz, or Your Voice.
Méndez had also worked until three years ago at the news site Zona Franca, according to its director Carmen Martínez.
It was not immediately clear whether Méndez was enrolled in the federal government’s protection program for journalists and human rights defenders under threat.
While organized crime is often involved in journalist killings, small town officials or politicians with political or criminal motivations are often suspects as well. Journalists running small news outlets in Mexico’s interior are easy targets.
