Husband and wife journalists Juan Francisco Rodríguez Ríos, 51, and María Elvira Hernández Galeana, 37, were murdered on Monday, June 28 in the Internet café that they owned in the town of Coyuca de Benítez, in Guerrero state.

Rodríguez was a stringer for El Sol de Acapulco, which belongs to the Organización Editorial Mexicana (OEM) news media company, and a local newspaper named Día 17; his wife was a freelance reporter for several local daily and weekly newspapers and in addition worked with her husband taking photographs.

The police report said that two men entered the café and using 9mm pistols fired straight at the two journalists, who were with their eight-year-old son. Eyewitnesses reported that a third man was waiting for them outside.

The crime occurred around 9:30 p.m. at the café very close to the police station and on a day when the 7th State Convention of the National Union of Press Reporters, whose Local 34 Rodríguez Ríos headed, was being held.

So far no theory has been discarded, because the assailants stole nothing from the café and therefore the attack could have been linked to the victims’ profession or to have been personally motivated. However, Rodríguez Ríos had said on a number of occasions that he had information about organized crime activities in the area but could not publish it because that would be too risky.

Several months earlier the murder had occurred of news photographer Jean Paul in Iguala, Guerrero state, three days after he too said he had information about the same subject.

What is known as the Grand Coast of Guerrero has become a battle zone of criminal gangs, whose clashes have resulted in a large number of crimes. In Guerrero state in addition to the murder of four journalists in recent months there have been fatal attacks on public officials and community leaders. None of the crimes has been solved.