MEXICO CITY _ A news cameraman was shot dead Wednesday in the Mexican resort city of Cancun _ at least the eighth Mexican journalist slain this year.
The cameraman was identified by prosecutors in Quintana Roo state only by his initials, J.E.R.V, but local television station Canal 10 confirmed that the victim was Javier Rodriguez Valladeres.
On its Twitter account, the station lamented the death of Rodriguez as an "irreparable loss."
Rodriguez was killed along with another man, who was identified in local media reports as a local artisan.
The state prosecutor's office said in a statement that because Valladeres was not dressed in his work uniform at the time of his death, it was unlikely that he was targeted because of his journalism.
Press freedom advocates have complained that Mexican law enforcement authorities often fail to properly investigate attacks against journalists, which occur here at rates seen only in war zones such as Syria.
The vast majority of such attacks go unsolved. Rodriguez's death comes on the heels of two other recent killings of journalists in Quintana Roo, a state that has seen record levels of violence in recent months.
Last month, Ruben Pat, the news director of the online site Semanario Playa News, was shot to death in Playa del Carmen, about 40 miles south of Cancun.
Pat, who had published stories about crime and politics, had previously complained of being detained and beaten by local police officers after he published a story about alleged ties between a drug cartel and the local police chief.
A month earlier, another reporter at Playa News, Jose Chan Dzib, was shot to death in the town of Saban, also in Quintana Roo state.
Pedro Canche Herrera, who runs another news site in Quintana Roo, complained Wednesday night on Twitter that journalists in the state were becoming part of a "mourning guild."
He criticized Quintana Roo Gov. Carlos Joaquin for recently traveling to Europe to promote Cancun as a tourist destination at the same time that the state has been engulfed in violence, which authorities blame on criminal groups battling over drug sales.
There were 395 homicide investigations opened in the state in the first seven months of 2018, more than twice as many as the 169 investigations during the same period last year.
After eight bodies were discovered across Cancun last week, the U.S. State Department updated its travel advisory for Mexico, warning American visitors to "exercise increased caution in Mexico due to crime."
Mexican authorities have emphasized that the region's rising violence has occurred far from the hotels and other popular tourist destinations that line Quintana Roo's coastline.
Rodriguez's slaying took place about two miles from beachside hotels.
