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Crime

Mexican journalist murdered on her doorstep

June 12, 2019

Norma Sarabia had worked as a crime reporter in the state of Tabasco for 15 years. She is the sixth journalist to be killed this year in a country ranked third most dangerous in the world.

Stock photo: Mexiko murder
Image: Getty Images/Spencer Platt

Mexican journalist Norma Sarabia, a correspondent for the newspaper Tabasco Hoy, was shot to death by two gunmen on a motorcycle in front of her home in the city of Huimanguillo Tuesday night.  

Read more: 'They want us dead, they want us silenced, but we are still standing'

Sarabia had worked as a crime reporter at Tabasco Hoy for the past 15 years. Hector Tapia, the paper's editorial director, wrote on Twitter, "We deeply regret her death and we sympathize with her family."

The city of Huimanguillo, in southeast Mexico, borders the state of Veracruz, where a number of people have been killed in connection with fuel smuggling in recent months.

A deadly job

Sarabia is the sixth journalist to be killed in Mexico this year; last year 10 journalists were gunned down. The organization Reporters Without Borders ranks Mexico the third most dangerous country in the world for reporters, behind Afghanistan and Syria.

Read more: Opinion: Mexico is a country to despair over

Tabasco Hoy announced a reward for information leading to Sarabia's killers and asked, "Six journalists assassinated; most killers unpunished. Security?"

More than 100 journalists, many reporting on drug cartels and police corruption, have been killed in Mexico since 2000. Most perpetrators go unpunished.

js/msh (AFP, epd)

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