Photographer shot dead in fifth journalist killing in Mexico in 2023

Source: The Guardian and agencies

Photographer shot dead in fifth journalist killing in Mexico in 2023

Body of Ismael Villagómez found in a car as the Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the killing to be investigated

Guardian staff and agencies
Fri 17 Nov 2023 06.12 GMT
Last modified on Fri 17 Nov 2023 11.54 GMT

A photographer for a newspaper in the notoriously violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez was found shot dead in the driver’s seat of a car, prosecutors said, in the fifth killing of a journalist in the country so far in 2023.

The body of Ismael Villagómez was found just after midnight Thursday. The newspaper he worked for, the Heraldo de Juarez, said the news photographer was found dead in a car that he had registered to use for work for a ride-hailing app. In Mexico, many journalists take work outside the profession to pay the bills.

The newspaper added that his phone was not found at the scene.

Carlos Manuel Salas, a prosecutor for the northern border state of Chihuahua, said authorities are investigating whether Villagómez had a fare at the time, and whether the killing was related to his work as a photographer.

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Original Guardian link (registration required): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/17/photographer-ismael-villagomez-shooting-mexico-journalist-killings-ciudad-juarez