A Mexican radio journalist was shot dead Saturday in a restaurant in Tabasco state, east of the capital, the latest victim in what has become one of the world´s deadliest countries for the press. Jesus Ramos Rodriguez was killed in the town of Emiliano Zapata, an official from the local prosecutor´s office told AFP. According to local media, Ramos had hosted a news bulletin for the 99.9 FM radio station for more than two decades. The El Universal daily quoted witnesses as saying his assailant got out of a car and headed straight towards him, shooting him more than eight times at point blank range. The killing comes weeks after a community radio station director was murdered in the northern state of Baja California Sur, in the first such case of 2019. Rafael Murua, who had received death threats for his work, was found dead in a ditch on January 20, after being reported missing. Murua, 34, had been under the Mexican government´s protection program for journalists and rights activists. Racked by violent crime linked to the country´s drug war and fueled by political corruption, Mexico has registered more than 100 journalist murders since 2000, with 10 killed last year alone. In December 2018, watchdog group Reporters Without Borders ranked Mexico the third-most-dangerous country for reporters after war-torn Afghanistan and Syria. The vast majority of cases have gone unpunished -- as do more than 90 percent of violent crimes in Mexico.<doc-sep>See the recovery efforts in Gaza as ceasefire appears to hold 'Is everything I'm trying to do pointless? ': Syrians helpless in face of 'sham' election Brother of journalist detained in Myanmar says family is hopeful Report: US companies may have benefited from forced labor of Uyghurs Residents stand near stalls along a road amidst debris while strong winds batter Balasore district in Odisha state on May 26, 2021 as Cyclone Yaas barrels towards India's eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP) (Photo by DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images) France's President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame speak as they walk in the grounds of The Presidential Palace in Kigali on May 27, 2021, after their press conference and prior to their official luncheon. - French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Rwanda on May 27, 2021, for a highly symbolic visit aimed at moving on from three decades of diplomatic tensions over France's role in the 1994 genocide in the country. Macron is the first French leader since 2010 to visit the East African nation, which has long accused France of complicity in the killing of some 800,000 mostly Tutsi Rwandans. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images) Relative of detained Iranian-Americans fears they will not survive TOPSHOT - Myanmar journalist Wa Lone (C) is escorted by police after being sentenced by a court to jail in Yangon on September 3, 2018. - Two Reuters journalists were jailed on September 3 for seven years for breaching Myanmar's official secrets act during their reporting of the Rohingya crisis, a judge said, a case that has drawn outrage as an attack on media freedom. (Photo by Ye Aung THU / AFP) (Photo credit should read YE AUNG THU/AFP/Getty Images) (CNN) — Jesus Eugenio Ramos Rodriguez was at breakfast Saturday morning when he became the second journalist murdered in Mexico this year. Mexican authorities confirmed the death of Rodriguez on Saturday. They say he was in a restaurant early Saturday morning in the state of Tabasco when he was shot and killed. Rodriguez hosted a radio show that aired twice daily, and according to government run Notimex, he is the second journalist to be killed in Mexico in 2019. The motive for the shooting is unknown. Tabasco authorities are investigating the shooting, and the Mexican government has vowed to strengthen its security measures for journalists and human rights workers. Mexico’s communications coordinator for the President’s office Jesus Ramirez tweeted about the importance of protecting journalists. “Freedom of expression is a right and a fundamental element for democracy, justice, and liberty,” Ramirez said on Twitter. With nine journalists killed in 2018, Mexico is the fourth deadliest country in the world for journalists, according to a report by Reporters Without Borders, known internationally as Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF). The United States, last year, tied for fifth. Journalists covering political corruption and organized crime are often the targets of violence in Mexico, according to RSF. CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that Tabasco is a state. CNN’s Jonny Hallam contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Officials say a Mexican journalist has been gunned down in the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco. The state attorney general's office said in a statement that radio journalist Jesus Ramos was shot and killed early Saturday. Local media outlets reported that Ramos received multiple bullet wounds while eating breakfast at a restaurant that he frequented. Ramos is the second journalist to be killed in Mexico this year. In January, the director of a community radio station was killed and dumped along a roadside in Baja California Sur. The country currently ranks seventh by the Committee to Protect Journalists' impunity index, which tallies the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of a country's population in places where it is dangerous to work.<doc-sep>
A lone gunman approached a Mexican journalist in the southern state of Tabasco and shot him eight times before making a clean getaway. The crime is the second murder of a journalist in Mexico in 2019 and the fourth under the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO). The gunman killed Jesus Eugenio “Chuchin” Ramos Rodriguez, a journalist and radio personality as he was having breakfast at a restaurant in the municipality of Emiliano Zapata, information released by Tabasco’s Attorney General’s Office revealed. The gunman approached as the journalist ate breakfast with another individual. He fired multiple times hitting Ramos eight times, SinEmbargo.Mx reported. Private citizens tried to rush Ramos to a local hospital but he eventually died from the injuries sustained. Local journalists and authorities have not revealed if Ramos received previous threats. Ramos worked at the same radio station for more than 20 years and was the host of a local radio show. Just hours after the murder, Jesus Ramirez Cuevas, the head of the press department for AMLO, took to social media to condemn the murder stating that the Mexican government would be working to improve security conditions for journalist and human rights activists. Condenamos el asesinato del periodista y locutor Jesús Ramos en Tabasco. El @GobiernoMX fortalecerá las medidas de protección a personas defensoras de ddhh y periodistas. La libertad de expresión es un derecho y elemento fundamental para la democracia, la justicia y la libertad. pic.twitter.com/Q7KMzQo7qp — Jesús Ramírez Cuevas (@JesusRCuevas) February 9, 2019 Ramos’ murder comes less than three weeks after the murder of another radio journalists in the state of Baja California. As Breitbart News reported, 34-year-old Rafael Murua Manriquez died from multiple apparent stab wounds after having been reported missing. Murua worked the general director of Radio Kashana, a community station based in Santa Rosalia, which reported on human rights, gender issues, alternative lifestyles, reproductive health, and ecology. Two other journalists have been killed in Mexico since AMLO took office in December. As Breitbart News reported, in early December, 35-year-old Diego Garcia Corona from Semanario Morelos was gunned down on his way home from work in Mexico State. That murder came just three days after the murder of Jesus Alejandro Marquez, the founder and leader of Orion Informativo in the state of Nayarit. Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook . He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com .