Hitmen kill a journalist and a police officer on the northern border of Mexico

Hitmen shot dead Mexican reporter Jesús Gutiérrez Vergara, the sixth journalist murdered in Mexico in 2023, and a police officer in an attack in the northern state of Sonora, on the border with the United States, local authorities revealed this Monday.

Gutiérrez Vergara, a crime journalist, died riddled with bullets when the group of hitmen with assault rifles directly attacked four police officers in San Luis Río Colorado, on the border with Arizona.

Although the events occurred on Sunday, the Attorney General's Office in Sonora reported this Monday of the death of the journalist and the police officer, in addition to three other seriously injured agents.

The State Security Board implemented an operation with forces from the Army, National Guard, State Police and the Ministerial Criminal Investigation Agency to find those responsible, but until Monday morning the arrest of any suspect was reported.

According to witnesses, the reporter left his house and crossed the street to talk with the four agents and minutes later armed men arrived in a truck from where they were riddled with bullets.

The Attorney General's Office in Sonora assured that the 47-year-old reporter was a collateral victim and that the police officers were off duty.

Gutiérrez Vergara was director of the Notiface Prensa Digital website in San Luis, dedicated mainly to live broadcasts of police events.

The attack occurs after, last week, sailors tried to arrest several municipal police officers, but the suspects, accused of alleged crimes of kidnapping and homicide, fled and hid in the headquarters and the City Hall Palace.

So far they have not identified the murdered police officer and the three injured, since the Prosecutor's Office only confirmed the identity of the murdered journalist.

Gutiérrez Vergara is the sixth journalist murdered so far this year in Mexico, where the organization Article 19 has indicated that at least two of them died from violence related to their work.

Mexico is the most dangerous country without war for the press, with a record of at least 11 journalists murdered in 2022, according to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) organization.