Mexican influencer shot dead during TikTok beauty salon livestream

Prosecutors in Jalisco state say 23-year-old Valeria Márquez's death is being investigated as a potential femicide.

A 23-year-old Mexican influencer was shot dead at a beauty salon near Guadalajara while doing a TikTok livestream on Tuesday, authorities in the state of Jalisco have confirmed. Valeria Márquez appeared to be speaking to a deliveryman off-camera when she was shot once in the chest and once in the head. The young influencer died instantly, police said. Márquez's killing in the municipality of Zapopan caused shock across Mexico, with her social media accounts inundated with messages mourning her death. Prosecutors said her death was being investigated as a potential femicide, a type of killing in which a woman or girl is targeted because of their gender. Mexico has the fourth-highest femicide rate of any country in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the most recent UN data. Only a few hours after Márquez's murder, the former PRI party congressman Luis Armando Córdova Díaz was shot dead at a nearby cafe. The police are still investigating his death, which occurred in a region where the New Generation Jalisco Cartel has firm control.