Journalist, bodyguard killed in northern Mexico attack

State officials in northern Mexico say gunmen killed the owner of a newspaper and one of the policemen who had been assigned to protect him following earlier threats.

Sonora state prosecutor office said Jorge Miguel Armenta Avalos was attacked while leaving a restaurant Saturday afternoon in downtown Ciudad Obregon. Municipal police officer Orlando Antonio Ruvalcaba Flores also was killed and a fellow officer was wounded.

Armenta was the director of Medios Obson and El Tiempo, which publish both in print and online.

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State prosecutor Claudia Indira Contreras vowed to pursue all possible angles, but there were apparently no suspects.

Armenta is at least the third journalist slain in Mexico this year. More than 140 have been killed over the past 20 years.

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“We can’t speculate about the motives for which the businessman Jorge Armenta Avalos was killed. What we can say is that we’re dealing with one more journalist who is killed in broad daylight and in a rising atmosphere of violence,” said Rafael Caro Franco, president of the National Forum of Journalists and Communicators.