One of Mexico’ most respected journalists was shot and killed Monday by unidentified assailants in Culiacan, Sinaloa.
Javier Valdez became the sixth journalist to be assassinated in Mexico since early March. The slaying provoked widespread public displays of grief and anger, with fellow journalists holding vigils and protests in several cities, including Guadalajara.
A veteran investigative reporter, Valdez had almost predicted his own demise following the murder of Miroslava Breach in Chihuahua in March. “Let them kill us all, if that is the death sentence for reporting this hell. No to silence,” Valdez wrote after his colleague was slain. Both reported for the La Jornada daily newspaper, as well as other journals.
Valdez was killed in broad daylight, less than a block from the office of the newspaper he founded 12 years ago, Ríodoce.
In 2011, Valdez received the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York. The author of several books, including “Miss Narco” and “The Kids of the Drug Trade,” Valdez bravely spoke out about the ties between the traffickers and government officials.
The vast majority of attacks on the press in Mexico go unpunished, even though a special prosecutor’s office assigned to investigating cases was recently established.
Meanwhile, authorities are investigating an incident this week in Autlan, Jalisco, in which a reporter at a weekly magazine was shot and killed and his mother critically wounded.