Armando Rodriguez, the main police reporter for El Diario newspaper in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua state across from El Paso, Texas, was shot as he was leaving his house to take his daughter to school, the newspaper said on its Web site.Suspected drug gangs shot dead a Mexican crime reporter near the U.S. border on Thursday, the latest journalist victim of a brutal drug war in which traffickers are targeting the media.Relatives of Rodriguez also confirmed his killing. It was not clear why he was targeted."Organized crime in Ciudad Juarez has tried to intimidate the church, schools and now journalists," Pedro Torres, the newspaper's deputy editorial director, told Mexican television.Ciudad Juarez is Mexico's most violent city and security has collapsed since the Pacific-coast Sinaloa cartel declared war on local drug baron Vicente Carrillo Fuentes and sent its hitmen to drive out his Juarez cartel. The Gulf cartel based around the Gulf of Mexico coast has joined the fight.
Mexican journalists reporting on drug gangs are often harassed by traffickers but attacks on the media have mounted since President Felipe Calderon launched an army-led crackdown on the cartels at the end of 2006.Since 2006, 15 journalists have been killed in Mexico, making it one of the world's most dangerous countries for the media, according to the U.S.-based nonprofit organization Committee to Protect Journalists.
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