Mexican reporter who feared for her life killed in Tijuana

Journalists protested outside of the municipal police headquarters in Tijuana, Mexico Monday …

after a second Mexican reporter was killed in a week - underscoring the country's status as one of the deadliest for journalists outside a war zone.

The attorney general's office of Baja California state reported that Lourdes Maldonado, a local journalist with decades of experience, was shot dead in her car on Sunday in the Santa Fe neighborhood of the bustling border city of Tijuana, just south of San Diego, California.

Her death comes three years after she told Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at a press conference that she feared for her life.

Obrador on Monday promised a full investigation.

A source with knowledge of the case said Maldonado had been registered in the state's protection program for journalists, which included some police surveillance of her home.

Maldonado’s colleague and friend Octavio Favela condemned the fact that she wasn't protected.

"The mechanism (for the protection of journalists) should have had a patrol car patrolling permanently outside of Lourdes' home, and they didn't do it. How is it possible that someone can come to kill a person that needs to be protected? (The murderer) comes, waits for her, and then leaves, just like that. How is that possible?"

From 2000 to 2021, human rights group Article 19 has registered 145 killings of journalists in Mexico, with seven deaths last year.

The killing of Maldonado occurred less than a week after officials reported that Mexican photojournalist Margarito Martinez died after being shot in the head outside his home in Tijuana.

Maldonado was the third journalist killed this year in Mexico.