MEXICO CITY 鈥� An activist who documented murders in one of Mexico鈥檚 deadliest cities has himself been killed, authorities confirmed Wednesday.
Adolfo Enr铆quez was killed in the city of Leon, in north-central Guanajuato state. The city has the third-highest number of homicides in Mexico, trailing only the border cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez.
Enr铆quez described himself on his social media profiles as an 鈥渁ctivist, demanding a country with the rule of law.鈥�
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For years, Enr铆quez has posted a simple, moving tally of each murder in Leon, writing just hours before his death that 鈥渕urder number 55 in Leon so far in November just occurred in the Margaritas neighborhood.鈥�
He himself became murder victim number 56 late Tuesday, local police confirmed, without providing details on the attack. State prosecutors confirmed his death and said it was under investigation.
Local media reported Enr铆quez was shot to death after leaving a restaurant, and that the attacker fled on a motorcycle.
The number of murders in Leon in November was not remarkable. In October, the city saw 64 murders, according to official figures.
Enr铆quez also posted videos of crimes like robberies and muggings, and appealed to the public for help in identifying the thieves.
He rose to national attention after he posted a compelling, tragic security camera video of the stabbing death of a woman in Leon in August. The video helped spur authorities into action and arrest the man who attacked her.
Leon is an industrial hub which, like the rest of Guanajuato, has been the scene of between the Jalisco drug cartel and local gangs backed by the Sinaloa cartel.
Crimes against activists in Mexico are depressingly common.
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In perhaps the most famous case involving those who documented drug cartel violence, blogger Maria Elizabeth Mac铆as was murdered in 2011 in the northern border state of Tamaulipas. Her body was found along with a note purportedly signed by the Zetas cartel: 鈥淗ere I am because of my reports.鈥� A computer keyboard and headphones lay next to her severed head.
According to a 2022 report by the nongovernmental group Global Witness, Mexico was the deadliest place in the world for environmental and land defense activists in 2021, with 54 killed that year.
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