A social media influencer was shot to death while doing a TikTok livestream at a beauty salon in the central Mexican state of Jalisco, state authorities confirmed Wednesday.
The stark show of violence fueled shock in the Latin American nation at a time when rival cartels have fought bloody wars for territorial control in much of Mexico.
Valeria Márquez, 23, appeared to have been speaking to a delivery man off camera on her livestream Tuesday when she was shot once in the chest and once in the head and collapsed, dying instantly. The model and beauty influencer was inside a beauty salon in the municipality of Zapopan, the fringes of Guadalajara, when it happened.
Just a few hours later, a former congressman with the Mexican PRI party Luis Armando Córdova Díaz, was also shot dead in a cafe in the area.
Prosecutors in Jalisco were still investigating, but the New Generation Jalisco Cartel maintains firm control over the region. State authorities said they were investigating Márquez’s death as a possible femicide, an extreme case of gender-based violence common in Latin America where a woman is attacked due to her gender.
Márquez’s social media accounts have been flooded by comments mourning her and expressing shock.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.