Mexican journalist killed while under police protection

A journalist lights a candle at a vigil for murdered media workers in 2022

A Mexican journalist who reported on violent crime has been killed while under police protection.

Unknown gunmen shot Alejandro Martínez as he was travelling in a car with two security guards in the central state of Guanajuato.

Mr Martínez, who was known as "The Son of the Lone Ranger", died in hospital from the bullet wounds he sustained in the attack.

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

Mr Martínez, who was in his 50s, ran a popular news outlet on Facebook, which has 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 attackers opened fire from a pickup truck on the car carrying the journalist and his bodyguards.

Police sources told AFP news agency that the bodyguards returned fire but could not save the reporter, who was hit by a bullet in the head.

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

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

Balbina Flores from Reporters Without Borders in Mexico told AFP that "he was a journalist who was at risk".

He had been assigned bodyguards under a federal programme for reporters who receive death threats, a government official said.

His shooting is the latest in a string of deadly attacks on journalists.

Earlier this month, Federico Hans, a journalist in the town of Caborca in northern Sonora state, was shot and wounded as he got into his car outside his home.

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