By Alejandro Martínez
Jaime Guadalupe Domínguez, the director of a news site in the Mexican city of Ojinaga -- in the Northern state of Chihuahua -- was killed in the afternoon of March 3 by a group of armed men, reported the newspaper Diario de Chihuahua. Domínguez's website said it was “very probable” that it would shut down after the incident.
Domínguez, 38, was the director of the site OjinagaNoticias.com and died after receiving 18 gunshots with bullets caliber 5.77 x 38, also known as "cop killers", El Diario de Juárez reported. The attackers took his photo camera before leaving.
OjinagaNoticias.com published a brief story on the crime and announced that it was possible that it would close its operations.
"After this news it's very possible that this will be the last story from this site, this attack against journalism is a sincere shame," the site said.
The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the crime.
"The Rapporteur expresses its concern and calls Mexican authorities to act with expediency to identify the motives behind the crime and use all the judicial instruments at its disposal to identify and sanction the material and intellectual authors," the Rapporteur said in a press release.
OjinagaNoticias was launched on Feb. 18 this year and advertised itself as the "youngest news portal in Ojinaga," Diario de Juárez said. The website was still active during the morning of March 4 but was apparently suspended by early afternoon.
Mexico continues to be among the most dangerous countries in the continent for journalists. According to a recent interactive map from the organization Article 19, Chihuahua has been one of the most violent states for journalists in the last twelve years.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
