Mexican journalist shot and killed

[ACAPULCO, Mexico] A Mexican journalist was shot and killed Thursday in the country's violent Guerrero state, regional authorities said.

"I regret to confirm the homicide of journalist Cecilio Pineda," said Roberto Alvarez, a spokesman for the state's security department, on Twitter.

The regional prosecutor's office is investigating the crime, he said.

The journalist - who had directed the regional newspaper La Voz de la Tierra Caliente and collaborated with the national daily El Universal - was shot while "in a hammock" at a car wash in the municipality of Ciudad Altamirano, where he lived, the Guerrero prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Paramedics arrived at the scene but Pineda Brito died while receiving first aid.

The journalist covered police news in Tierra Caliente, a zone for growing marijuana and producing opium, which has been hit by a wave of kidnappings in recent months.

He had denounced threats on social networks and in September 2015 managed to evade an attack outside his house.

Globally Mexico ranks third in the number of journalists killed, following Syria and Afghanistan, according to Reporters Without Borders.

AFP