The death toll for the Mexican journalist killing rose to eight, as another media practitioner was killed in a home located in the west of Mexico City.

According to AP, the latest journalist killed in Zitácuaro was identified as Armando Linares, a reporter from Monitor Michoacan website, per Axios.

Linares was reportedly shot at least eight times on Tuesday afternoon outside his home in Zitácuaro, per The Guardian. Reports also confirmed that the Mexico journalist was killed by assassins who remained on the loose as of Wednesday.

To date, the motive for killing Linares is still unclear, CBS News reported.

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Mexico Journalist Killing: 8th Reporter Killed Announced the Death of His Colleague

Linares' death came six weeks after his colleague Roberto Toledo, a camera operator and video editor for Monitor Michoacan, was slain. CBS highlighted that Linares was the one who announced Toledo's death on January 31 that occurred in the same city where he met his demise.

Linares said that Toledo was targeted for exposing corruption, claiming that they do not bring any weapons and that pen and paper are the only things who can defend them, per The Guardian.

Axios mentioned that Toledo was shot and killed by three armed men in Zitácuaro.

Linares said in an interview in February that they wrote about illegal logging and several issues, like corruption in their municipality. The reporter furthered that they also have organized crime just like the rest of Mexico.

After Toledo's death, Linares claimed that he received several death threats after he enrolled in a government protection program. The journalist added that the death threats came from people who identify themselves as an armed group and criminal gang, per CBS.

"We can't verify whether it is true or not that they are this armed gang," Linares added.

Linares was the eighth media practitioner that is victims by Mexico journalist killing this year, per Axios. Other journalist victims in the country include Herbert López, Lourdes Maldonado López, and Jorge Camero.

AMLO Says Investigation Underway for Recent Victim of Mexico Journalist Killing

On Wednesday, Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador emphasized in his daily press briefing that they are already investigating and that authorities responded to the latest victim of journalist killings in the country, per The Guardian.

However, the president did not further on the details, whether there were developments in their investigation.

Meanwhile, the journalists from Monitor Michoacan, the company where Linares served as director, demanded the Mexico president to "take with due seriousness the murders, attacks and violations of the rights of journalists and workers of media in Mexico," according to Proceso.

The journalists also demanded AMLO's administration to stop using them "politically" and implement the "necessary, immediate and effective" measures to curb the cases of journalists killed, disappeared, and violated in the country.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

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