Three journalists have been killed in Mexico over the course of a three-day span, according to several reports.

Two Mexican journalists from the news website El Veraz — Yesenia Mollinedo, the director, and Sheila Johana García, a reporter — were shot to death Monday in the eastern state of Veracruz, said the state's attorney general, Verónica Hernández.

The women were killed while sitting in a vehicle parked outside of a convenience store, Univision reported.

Hernandez tweeted that an investigation has been opened, in which prosecutors, police and experts will look for motives and suspects, as well as review the journalists' recent activity.

Luis Enrique Ramírez, 61, a columnist for El Debate in Sinaloa, was killed last Thursday. Ramirez died from blows to the head and also had a gunshot wound to the leg, according to a statement from the State Attorney's General Office in Sinaloa.

Witnesses say they saw Ramirez being forced into a white van. His body was found on a dirt road, the statement said.

The deaths of the three journalists mark a total of 11 reporters killed in Mexico since the start of 2022, Univision said.

In 2021, seven reporters were killed in Mexico, making it the most dangerous country for journalists for the third year in a row, according to data compiled by Reporters Without Borders, a public interest nonprofit.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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