Suspected cartel gunmen killed another award-winning journalist. This year, reporters exposing drug cartels and their ties to Mexican politicians have become targets with five murders taking place in 2017.
Mexico’s Rio Doce confirmed the murder of its founder, Javier Valdez, an award-winning investigator and author who had been reporting on Mexico’s organized crime. Valdez was driving a red Toyota Corolla along a city street in Culiacan, Sinaloa, when unidentified gunmen shot him, Rio Doce reported. The local print weekly and online publication is one of the few news outlets that continues to carry out in-depth investigations in Mexico exposing the deep ties between Mexican politicians and drug cartels.
Valdez’s murder comes just weeks after cartel gunmen murdered respected journalist Maximino Rodriguez Palacios in Baja California Sur as he drove with his wife to a shopping center, Breitbart Texas reported. The murder remains unsolved.
Just days before the murder of Rodriguez, cartel gunmen from the La Linea faction of the Juarez Cartel killed award-winning journalist Miroslava Breach, Breitbart Texas reported. Breach’s death occurred after her work exposed how the mother-in-law of one of the La Linea leaders was going to be running for mayor in the state of Chihuahua.
Mexico’s Network of Journalists from the Northeast expressed their condemnation and demanded that Mexico’s government stop turning a blind eye to the escalating violence.
“We come once again and as many times as necessary to harshly demand that authorities carry out their duty of protecting citizens from criminals and punish criminals according to the Rule of Law,” a prepared statement from the network revealed.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
This article has been updated to reflect the correct first name spelling for the murdered journalist, Javier Valdez.
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