A Mexican journalist was shot dead while under police protection

A Mexican journalist who was reporting on violent crime was killed while under police protection.

Unknown gunmen shot Alejandro Martínez while he was traveling in a car with two bodyguards in central Guanajuato state.

Mr Martínez, who was known as “The Son of the Lone Ranger”, died in hospital from gunshot wounds he received during the attack.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the world, with more than 150 media workers killed since 1994, according to the campaign group Reporters Without Borders.

Mr Martínez, who was in his 50s, had a popular Facebook page, with more than 340,000 followers.

He had been under police protection after surviving a similar attack on his life in 2022.

Local authorities said the assailants opened fire from a pickup truck carrying the journalist and his bodyguards.

Police sources told AFP that the guards returned fire but were unable to save the journalist who was shot in the head.

A woman in another car was also hit and injured by a stray bullet, sources said.

In an interview three years ago, Mr. Martínez said he felt incredible pain and sadness when he saw the damage done to the region by increasing levels of violence.

Balbina Flores of Reporters Without Borders in Mexico told AFP she was “a journalist at risk”.

He has been given bodyguards under the organization’s program for journalists who receive death threats, a government official said.

His shooting is the latest in a series of killings of journalists.

Earlier this month, Federico Hans, a journalist in the town of Caborca ​​in the northern state of Sonora, was shot and injured while getting into his car outside his home.

And on June 29, Víctor Culebro was found dead on a highway in the southern state of Chiapas.