Second Latin American Influencer Gunned Down in Two Weeks

For the second time in two weeks, a young Latin American influencer has been shot to death. Just last week, 23-year-old Mexican influencer Valeria Marquez was killed during a livestream at her salon in Jalisco, Mexico. Not long afterward, 22-year-old Colombian model Maria Jose Estupiñan was gunned down after opening the door for an assassin disguised as a delivery man. The two cases share some similarities beyond the targeting of young female models who promote themselves through social media.

CNN reports that Estupiñan was shot on May 15th after opening her door to a man who claimed to be delivering something to her apartment. Magda Victoria Acosta, the President of the National Gender Commission of the Colombian Judiciary, recently told reporters that Estupiñan was about to receive 30 million pesos from a domestic violence case involving her ex-partner.

Last week’s killing of Marquez had a major similarity to Estupiñan’s case: Not long before the shooting, a masked person posing as a delivery man appeared at Marquez’s salon and said he had an “expensive gift” for her, Reuters reports. Marquez was not there at the time. After Marquez arrived and started streaming on TikTok, an unknown assailant pulled up on a motorbike outside the young model’s salon and began firing through the front window of her business, killing her.

Marquez, who is said to have had nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok, could be heard saying “they’re coming” during the stream. A voice off camera then apparently said “Hey, Vale?” shortly before she was shot. Reuters also reports that, after she had been shot, a person appeared to “pick up her phone, with their face briefly showing on the livestream before the video ended.”

Prosecutors in the case have said that they believe the men who targeted Marquez were likely assassins. “The aggressor arrived asking if the victim (Márquez) was there. So it appears he didn’t know her,” Rodríguez told reporters. “With that, you can deduce — without jumping to conclusions — that this was a person who was paid. It was obviously someone who came with a purpose.”

Marquez even apparently expressed concern during her livestream that she would be murdered. “Maybe they were going to kill me,” she said in the video minutes before she was killed. “Were they going to come and take me away, or what? I’m worried.”