CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AFP) — Armed men shot dead a newspaper crime reporter in Mexico's violent northern border city of Ciudad Juarez as he left for work on Thursday, the daily said on its website.
"This morning reporter Armando Rodriguez was violently killed as he had barely left his home to go to work at El Diario," the website said.
Rodriguez, who was shot in his car as he prepared to take his daughter to school, had worked for more than 14 years at the newspaper in the border city across from El Paso, Texas, where more than 1,300 have been killed in suspected drug violence this year.
"Authorities told us it was a war between groups of drug traffickers ... but every day more innocent people are killed ... Journalists don't kill or sell drugs," said Jesus Mesa Vega, president of the local journalist association.
More than 4,500 people have died across the country in escalating gangland-style attacks this year, according to national newspaper tallies, including beheadings and massacres.
The government of President Felipe Calderon has made the fight against drug crime a priority, with the deployment of some 36,000 troops across the country almost two years ago, but with no visible impact on the violence.
At least 25 journalists have been killed and eight have disappeared since 2000 in Mexico, which rights groups say is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.
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