A newsstand displays front pages covering the funeral Mass of Valeria Marquez, 23, a Mexican social media influencer who was fatally shot during a TikTok livestream, in Guadalajara, Mexico, May 16, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - No sooner had 23-year-old beauty influencer Valeria Marquez been murdered on a TikTok livestream than the Mexican rumor mill started. Comments poured in on social media blaming her for her own death: She was involved in shady business, her ex-boyfriend was a narco, she had it coming, they said.
By Friday, the media and politicians were already moving on. Marquez seems destined to become one in a long line of Mexican women whose murder briefly shocks the conscience only to recede into the background until the next gruesome crime happens.
