TikTok beauty influencer shot dead during live stream in Mexico

Valeria Marquez was addressing her TikTok followers successful a livestream from her quality salon successful Zapopan, Mexico, erstwhile idiosyncratic arrived astatine her doorway to present a tiny parcel.

“He’s a small piglet!” the 23-year-old quality influencer exclaimed arsenic she returned to her viewers and unwrapped the stuffed animal, smiling arsenic she tossed her agelong blonde hairsbreadth implicit her shoulder.

Moments aboriginal she was dead, slumped implicit successful her seat with humor pooling connected the table successful beforehand of her, adjacent arsenic the livestream continued. The footage ended lone erstwhile different idiosyncratic picked up her phone, their look momentarily showing to viewers.

According to the authorities of Jalisco’s Attorney General’s office, Marquez was changeable dormant by a antheral intruder into her salon successful a lawsuit it is investigating arsenic a suspected femicide – the sidesplitting of a pistillate oregon miss for gender-based reasons.

The decease of Marquez – a nationalist fig with much than 100,000 Instagram followers – has sent shockwaves done a state that has agelong struggled with precocious levels of some homicide and unit against women.

Just days earlier, different pistillate – a mayoral campaigner successful the authorities of Veracruz – was besides changeable dormant during a livestream, alongside 3 different people.

While not each homicides involving women are femicides, galore are. In 2020, a 4th of pistillate killings successful Mexico were investigated arsenic femicides, with cases reported successful each 1 of Mexico’s 32 states, according to Amnesty International.

Last year, determination were 847 reported cases of femicide nationwide – and 162 successful the archetypal 3 months of this year, according to Mexican authorities figures.

Mexico’s effect to homicides successful wide is severely wanting, according to rights groups, who accidental excessively fewer investigations pb to prosecution.

“In 2022, astir 4,000 women were killed successful Mexico, which amounts to 12% of each homicides that year,” Human Rights Watch Americas Director Juanita Goebertus told CNN. “And the complaint of cases that pb to a verdict is astir 67%.”

The main challenge, Goebertus said, is expanding authorities’ capableness to analyse and support witnesses and victims.

CNN has reached retired to the Attorney General’s bureau for much information.

CNN’s Ivonne Valdés, Veronica Calderon and Angelica Franganillo Diaz contributed to this report.

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