On Monday 20th March 2017, human rights defender and journalist Ricardo Monlui Cabrera was shot dead in the municipality of Yanga, in the eastern state of Veracruz, as he left a restaurant where he had been having dinner with his wife and son.

According to news reports, Monlui was leaving a restaurant in Yanga with his wife and son at approximately 10 a.m., when unknown assailants riding a motorcycle fired at him three times, killing him on the spot. Jorge Morales, executive director of the Veracruz State Commission for the Care and Protection of Journalists (CEAPP), told CPJ that the victim was instantly killed by a bullet wound to the head. He also said that Monlui’s wife and son were unharmed, and that they were returned to their home in Córdoba under police protection.

Monlui, a resident of the city of Córdoba, was the editorial director of the Córdoba-based El Político newspaper and author of “Crisol,” a column that regularly appeared in the newspapers El Sol de Córdoba and Diario de Xalapa. He was also the president of Córdoba’s local journalists’ association and a spokesperson for the National Union of Sugar Cane Producers. He had been a journalist for more than 30 years.