MEXICO CITY (AP) — Another journalist was shot to death in Mexico, the eighth murdered so far this year in an unprecedented spate of killings that has made Mexico the most dangerous place in the world for the press.
Reporters and photographers have been murdered this year in Mexico at the rate of almost one a week, despite claims from the government that the situation is under control.
Prosecutors said reporter Armando Linares was shot to death Tuesday at a home in the town of Zitacuaro, in the violence-plagued western state of Michoacan.
Zitacuaro is the closest town to the monarch butterfly wintering grounds in the mountains west of Mexico City.
The area has been plagued by illegal logging and drug gangs, local governance disputes and deforestation linked to expanding avocado production.
Linares served as director at the Monitor Michoacan website, which on Tuesday continued to show an article he had written about a cultural festival celebrating monarch butterflies.
It's unclear on a possible motive in the killing, but Linares was the second employee at Monitor Michoacan to be killed this year.
