Influencer Valeria Marquez shot dead on TikTok livestream in Mexico by masked men
A beauty and makeup influencer was shot to death during a livestream to 113,000 followers on TikTok.
Valeria Márquez’s final moments have been watched in horror by her tens of thousands of people after the video spread on social media.
Her killing in Mexico’s Guadalajara area is the latest reminder of the rise in violence against women and girls in the country.
The 23-year-old was working at a beauty salon in the city of Zapopan when two men pulled up outside on a motorbike.
One of them – wearing a mask – stormed inside the building, looking for the young woman.
‘He asked her directly: “Are you Valeria?’” Denis Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office, said. ‘She responded, “Yes.”‘
It was then that the man pulled out the weapon and shot her as Valeria’s phone continued recording the bloody attack.
He then fled outside, hopping on the motorbike and fleeing the scene of the crime.
TikTok appeared to have been taken down Valeria’s account yesterday, but a video of the killing circulating online.
Footage Metro has chosen not to share shows her sitting in a chair at the salon, holding a pink stuffed pig toy in her lap.
Moments before the shooting, she is heard saying, ‘they’re coming,’ before a voice in the background asks ‘Hey, Vale?’
‘Yes,’ Valeria answers just before muting the sound on the livestream.
It is just seconds later that she is seen holding her chest and stomach where the bullets hit her, before slumping over in her chair.
Valeria had said earlier on the livestream that someone came to the salon when she was not there with an ‘expensive gift’ to deliver to her.
Boom in organised crime making femicide 'invisible'
Mexico has one of the world’s highest femicide rates – and the second highest in Latin America, just after Brazil – with at least 3% of murder victims classified as femicides.
More than 797 vases were recorder in 2024, the third year in a row with a decreasing figure.
But this count is perceived as even higher by most of the population as a substantial number of attacks go unreported and uninvestigated.
A boom in organised crime and drug trafficked in Mexico has ‘erased’ violence against women as a crime, victims have warned.
Data shared by the United Nations shows that more than 2,526 women were murdered in the past three decades – from 1993 through 2023 – and hundreds more have disappeared.
Ciudad Juárez remains Mexico’s deadliest city for women.
Appearing concerned, she said she was not planning to wait for the person to come back.
Her death is being investigated as a femicide – the killing of women or girls for reasons of gender – the Jalisco state prosecutor said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
The horror comes just days after mayoral candidate in the Veracruz state, Yesenia Lara Gutiérrez, was gunned down along with three others during a campaign march on Sunday – again captured on a livestream.
This Is Not Right
On November 25, 2024 Metro launched This Is Not Right, a year-long campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women.
With the help of our partners at Women's Aid, This Is Not Right aims to shine a light on the sheer scale of this national emergency.
You can find more articles here, and if you want to share your story with us, you can send us an email at vaw@metro.co.uk.
Read more:
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.