Journalist shot dead in crime-riddled western Mexico

MORELIA, Mexico: A journalist was shot dead Tuesday night in western Mexico, a local prosecutor’s office said, in a part of the country hit hard by organized crime.
Mauricio Cruz Solis, a host on local radio station La Poderosa Uruapan who also published news on the Minuto x Minuto outlet, was killed in the city of Uruapan.
One other person was wounded in the attack, the prosecutor’s office said.
The radio station where Cruz Solis worked mourned his killing in a statement published on social media.
“Mauricio was more than a colleague, he was an unconditional friend, a source of inspiration and a tireless voice in the service of our community,” the station said.
Wracked by violence related to drug trafficking, Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, news advocacy groups say.
Reporters Without Borders says more than 150 newspeople have been killed in Mexico since 1994.
Cruz Solis’s murder is the first killing of a journalist under the government of Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office on October 1, although there have been other attacks on media this month.
On October 18, gunmen shot at the front of the El Debate newspaper’s office in Culiacan, the state capital of cartel stronghold Sinaloa, which has been shaken by weeks of gang infighting.
A day later, a delivery worker with the outlet was abducted by presumed criminal groups and there has been no news about his whereabouts.