MEXICO CITY, May 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Mexican social media influencer was shot dead during a live stream on TikTok, where she had tens of thousands of followers, authorities said.
The Mexican press named her as Valeria Marquez, 23, who posted videos related to beauty and lifestyle, some of which had hundreds of thousands of views.
She was killed on Tuesday evening at her beauty salon in Zapopan, a suburb of the western city of Guadalajara, the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office reported.
“The victim is someone with an active presence and influence on social media,” it said in a statement. “A man entered the premises and apparently fired a gun at her.”
The motive of the attack was not immediately known.
Mexico’s security cabinet is working with prosecutors to investigate the murder, President Claudia Sheinbaum said.
“An investigation is underway to first find those responsible and the motive behind this situation,” Sheinbaum said in her regular morning press conference. “Our solidarity goes out to her family.”
So far, however, investigators have found no evidence that a criminal group was behind the shooting, state security coordinator Roberto Alarcon told reporters.
According to media reports, Marquez was killed by a man pretending to bring her a gift.
Just a few hours later, a former congressman with the Mexican PRI party, Luis Armando Córdova Díaz, was also shot dead in a cafe in the area. The state prosecutor’s office said he was killed in the Valle Real neighborhood of Zapopan.
The United Nations says that around 10 women or girls are murdered every day in Mexico, where criminal and gender-related violence is rampant.
Since 2001, at least 50,000 women have been murdered in Mexico, according to the U.N, but only 2% of cases end in a criminal sentence and only one in 10 victims reports their aggressor. — NNN-AGENCIES
