Susy Aponte, a journalist and candidate for the regional government of the Socios por Áncash movement, known as “la China Polo,” was killed Saturday in a market in the Andean city of Caraz during an electoral campaign tour, days after publicly denouncing death threats against her.

The attack was carried out by an alleged hitman who shot her in the head, according to local media, which reported that several people accompanying her were wounded. Peru’s National Police detained an armed man as a suspect in the shooting.

In recent days, Aponte circulated a message on her social media in which she accused the director of Criminal Investigation of Peru’s National Police, General Víctor Revoredo Farfán, of allegedly having “ordered an attack” against her after she exposed links between police commanders and the criminal organization Los Pulpos. She said she had received the warning from three prison facilities in the country.

Aponte had scheduled for Sunday the publication of an investigation into Lalo Villa, candidate for Mayor of Huaraz for the Alianza para el Progreso party (APP, center-right), led by businessman and former governor César Acuña.

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In response to the attack against the candidate in the October 4 elections, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Violence against Women and Members of the Family Group of Huaylas opened a preliminary investigation under the crime of femicide. Provincial prosecutor Dina Ramos, along with four deputy prosecutors and the National Police, took charge of collecting evidence at the crime scene, ordered the removal of the body, and instructed the review of video surveillance cameras to clarify the cause.

The Peruvian Press Council joined the demands to determine the motives of the crime, expressing on its digital platforms the urgency that this act not go unpunished as has happened with other episodes of aggression against journalists.

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