Journalist shot dead in Mexican state of Veracruz
A gunman shot and killed a journalist on Sunday in the Mexican state of Veracruz, adding to the toll in a state plagued by drug-gang violence and allegations of government corruption.
Ricardo Monlui was leaving a restaurant with his wife and a son in the town of Yanga, outside the larger city of Cordoba, when a man who appeared to have been waiting shot him twice and fled, local police chief Carlos Samuel Hernandez said.
Mr Monlui's wife and son were apparently unhurt.
He is at least the 11th journalist to be killed in just over six years in Veracruz state but the first since former governor Javier Duarte quit last year and vanished in the face of corruption charges.
New governor Miguel Angel Yunes, who took office in December, expressed indignation at the killing.
Mr Monlui was head of the Cordoba region's press association and was a columnist for new newspapers El Sol de Cordoba and Diario de Xalapa, as well as the magazine Analysis Politico.
Mr Hernandez said officials are trying to identify the killer and are not yet sure of a motive.
The Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists has said Mexico is the most dangerous part of the hemisphere for journalists and Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, has been the most deadly part of Mexico.
The committee says 86 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992, 37 of them for motives directly related to their work and 49 for reasons not yet clear.
AP
