Influencer killings mount in Mexico as rival cartel factions wage a bloody fight | CNN

Mexican influencer César Gastélum was live-streaming outside a fast-food restaurant when two men on motorbike stopped next him, pulled out a gun and shot him in the head. His brutal murder in Culiacán, the capital of the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa, happened in just a few seconds on Tuesday in front of an audience of thousands of social media users watching his stream. As news of his death ricocheted around the world, alarm was rising back home about the mounting deaths of influencers in Mexico, especially in the country’s most dangerous states. It is a phenomenon that some experts have attributed to possible links between content creators and criminal organizations, as well as the ongoing clashes between different factions of Sinaloa cartel. Gastélum’s last posts on Instagram and TikTok have thousands of comments ranging from sadness to disbelief. “Rest in peace” and “Justice for César,” several users say. One account points to another tragic case that was caught on a live stream: “Ahhh, the same thing that happened to Valeria Márquez, how terrible.” Márquez was a well-known beauty influencer who, like Gastélum, was killed while streaming on her s