A Mexican social media influencer who gained a substantial following for her beauty and makeup videos has been shot dead while on a TikTok livestream.
Her brazen killing sent shockwaves through Mexico, a country that faces some of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world.
The death of Valeria Marquez, 23, is under investigation and is being treated as a femicide, the Jalisco state prosecutor said in a statement on Tuesday evening. (Femicide is the killing of women or girls because of their gender.)
Femicide can include degrading violence, sexual abuse or a relationship with the murderer. It may also involve the victim’s body being exposed in a public space, the Mexican authorities said.
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According to the prosecutor’s office, Marquez was killed on Tuesday in Zapopan in central Mexico, near Guadalajara, by a man who entered the salon where she was employed and shot her. The suspect has not been named.
Seconds before the incident, Marquez was seen on her TikTok livestream seated at a table, holding onto a stuffed toy. She was heard saying, “They’re coming,” before a voice in the background asked, “Hey, Vale?”
Marquez responded “yes” before muting the livestream.
Shortly after she was fatally shot, a person grabbed her phone, their face briefly on display before the video was shut off.
At the time of her death, Marquez had about 200,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok, and had said earlier on the livestream that a person had arrived at the salon when she was not there with an “expensive gift” for her. Marquez, who appeared concerned when telling the story, said she was not planning to wait for the person to come back.
Marquez last posted a photo on Instagram on Tuesday morning, where she can be seen posing in front of the mirror in what appears to be a salon.
Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia are tied as the countries with the fourth-highest rates of femicide in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the latest data from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, at 1.3 femicide deaths for every 100,000 women in 2023.
Jalisco, the state where her murder took place, is ranked sixth out of Mexico’s 32 states, including Mexico City, for homicides, with 906 recorded there since the beginning of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s term in October 2024, according to data consultancy TResearch.
— With files from Reuters
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