Second Latin American Influencer Gunned Down in Two Weeks

For the second time in two weeks, a younger Latin American influencer has been shot to demise. Simply final week, 23-year-old Mexican influencer Valeria Marquez was killed throughout a livestream at her salon in Jalisco, Mexico. This week, 22-year-old Colombian mannequin Maria Jose Estupiñan was gunned down after opening the door for an murderer disguised as a supply man. The 2 instances share some similarities past the focusing on of younger feminine fashions who promote themselves by way of social media.

CNN reports that Estupiñan was shot on Might fifteenth after opening her door to a person who claimed to be delivering one thing to her house. Magda Victoria Acosta, the President of the Nationwide Gender Fee of the Colombian Judiciary, just lately informed reporters that Estupiñan was about to obtain 30 million pesos from a home violence case involving her ex-partner.

Final week’s killing of Marquez had a significant similarity to Estupiñan’s case: Not lengthy earlier than the taking pictures, a masked particular person posing as a supply man appeared at Marquez’s salon and stated he had an “costly present” for her, Reuters reports. Marquez was not there on the time. After Marquez arrived and began streaming on TikTok, an unknown assailant pulled up on a motorcycle outdoors the younger mannequin’s salon and commenced firing by way of the entrance window of her enterprise, killing her.

Marquez, who is alleged to have had practically 200,000 followers on TikTok, might be heard saying “they’re coming” in the course of the stream. A voice off digital camera then apparently stated “Hey, Vale?” shortly earlier than she was shot. Reuters additionally stories that, after she had been shot, an individual appeared to “choose up her cellphone, with their face briefly displaying on the livestream earlier than the video ended.”

Prosecutors within the case have stated that they consider the boys who focused Marquez had been doubtless assassins. “The aggressor arrived asking if the sufferer (Márquez) was there. So it seems he didn’t know her,” Rodríguez told reporters. “With that, you possibly can deduce — with out leaping to conclusions — that this was an individual who was paid. It was clearly somebody who got here with a objective.”

Marquez even apparently expressed concern throughout her livestream that she could be murdered. “Possibly they had been going to kill me,” she stated within the video minutes earlier than she was killed. “Have been they going to return and take me away, or what? I’m apprehensive.”