Mexican journalist Paty Bunbury shot dead

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 1 November 2024 |  CPJ News Alert

Patricia Ramírez Gonzalez, known as Paty Bunbury, was fatally shot in Colima. This incident marks the second journalist killing in Mexico in just 24 hours.

Summary

Mexican authorities must immediately and transparently investigate Wednesday’s killing of journalist Patricia Ramírez Gonzalez, also known as Paty Bunbury, in the city of Colima, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

Ramírez, an entertainment reporter for the privately owned Hechos newspaper, was the second Mexican journalist killed in less than 24 hours following Tuesday’s shooting of Mauricio Cruz Solís. The killings occurred during the first month of Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration.

“The brutal killing of Paty Bunbury is especially shocking, as it comes less than a day after her colleague Mauricio Cruz was killed,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative. “The killings demonstrate the urgent need for President Sheinbaum to take steps to protect the press from violence.”

According to a statement by the Colima state prosecutor’s office (FGE), Ramirez was shot by a single, unidentified individual at around 2 p.m. in the eatery she runs in Colima’s state capital as a side job to her work as a journalist.

The FGE has not stated whether they’re investigating whether her reporting was a possible motive and did not answer several telephone calls for comments from CPJ.

Mario Alberto Gaitan, the vice president of local journalists’ association Periodistas Colimenses, told CPJ via telephone that Ramirez did not cover politics, crime, or security and had not reported receiving threats.