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A 23-year-old influencer was shot and killed on Tuesday at a beauty salon in Jalisco, Mexico, while she was livestreaming on TikTok, according to the state prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
The influencer, Valeria M\u00e1rquez, was working at the salon in Zapopan, part of the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, and streaming to some of her 113,000 followers on TikTok, when two men pulled up outside on a motorbike, Denis Rodr\u00edguez, a spokesman for the Jalisco State Prosecutor\u2019s Office, said. One of the men entered the salon wearing a mask, looking for Ms. M\u00e1rquez.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe asked her directly: \u2018Are you Valeria?\u2019\u201d Mr. Rodr\u00edguez said. She responded, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man then pulled out a gun and shot her before hopping on the motorbike and fleeing.<\/p>\n
Ms. M\u00e1rquez\u2019s TikTok account appeared to have been taken down on Wednesday, but a video of the killing circulating online, which was confirmed by the prosecutor\u2019s office, <\/strong>showed her sitting in a chair at the salon, holding a pink stuffed pig in her lap, before looking away from the camera. A moment later she clutches at her chest and stomach before slumping over in her chair. Another woman\u2019s face is then seen before the video cuts out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When investigators arrived later, \u201cshe was still sitting in the chair, where she was surprised, with that doll, the little pig, right there in her arms,\u201d Mr. Rodr\u00edguez said.<\/p>\n The prosecutor\u2019s office said it did not have any suspects, but it was reviewing surveillance footage and combing through her social media for clues as to whom the attackers might be. The men, who visited the shop earlier in the day saying they were trying to deliver a gift for Ms. M\u00e1rquez, most likely didn\u2019t personally know her, as they had to ask for her by name, Mr. Rodr\u00edguez said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t have a personal relationship,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was simply her executioner.\u201d<\/p>\n The prosecutor\u2019s office said that it was investigating the crime as a possible \u201cfemicide,\u201d a type of gender-based violence against women. Such attacks are often unpunished in Mexico.<\/p>\n Ms. M\u00e1rquez\u2019s death was the latest reminder of the rise in violence against women in the country.<\/p>\n The killing occurred days after Yesenia Lara Guti\u00e9rrez, a mayoral candidate in the state of Veracruz, was gunned down along with three others during a campaign march on Sunday \u2014 an attack that was also captured on a livestream<\/a>.<\/p>\n A recording of that stream, which was posted on Ms. Guti\u00e9rrez\u2019s Facebook page and was still online as of Wednesday evening, shows Ms. Guti\u00e9rrez shaking the hands of residents and marching with her supporters through the streets, before a series of gunshots ring out. Moments later, some of her supporters can be heard screaming, while others run from the scene, before the camera goes dark.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mexico has enacted a number of local and federal laws in recent years to combat gender-based violence against women, but the country still has one of the highest rates of femicide in the world.<\/p>\n The violence is the product of a \u201cmachismo\u201d culture, ingrained sexism and institutions that resist acknowledging their own responsibility for gender-based violence, said Paulina Garc\u00eda-Del Moral, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Guelph.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s still a sense of entitlement among a lot of men in Mexico \u2014 and elsewhere in Latin America and the world \u2014 they feel entitled to women\u2019s bodies,\u201d Dr. Garc\u00eda-Del Moral said. \u201cIt\u2019s proven to be very resilient and resistant to change.\u201d<\/p>\n A study<\/a> in 2023 from a group of academics in Mexico found that femicide has been rising in the country for nearly a decade, outpacing other violent crimes, with around 10 or 11 women murdered every day.<\/p>\n