Javier Valdez was driving in broad daylight down a street he must have known well, just a block from his office, when he became the latest victim of a wave of journalist killings that has hit Mexico.
Masked gunmen forced Valdez from his red Toyota Camry, shot him dead and left his body in the middle of the street Monday, said Riodoce, the publication he helped start.
The car was found later in the afternoon on a sidewalk next to an elementary school, wedged between a utility pole and a wall with the motor still running and the gears engaged.
Valdez, an award-winning reporter who specialized in covering drug trafficking and organized crime, was slain in the northern state of Sinaloa, long a hotbed of drug cartel activity.
He is at least the sixth journalist murdered in Mexico since early March, an unusually high number even for one of the world's deadliest countries for media professionals.
Reporting on Valdez's killing, Mexican media posted images showing a body lying in the street covered by a blue blanket and surrounded by 12 yellow markers of the kind typically used to flag evidence such as bullet casings. Riodoce said Valdez's laptop and cellphone were missing.
Prosecutors announced they were investigating whether the killing may have been due to Valdez's work or a carjacking turned deadly. President Enrique Pena Nieto condemned what he called an "outrageous crime."
Valdez, also a correspondent for the national newspaper La Jornada, was an internationally recognized journalist who authored several books on the drug trade.
He was considered a rare source of independent, investigative journalism in Sinaloa, said Jan-Albert Hootson, the Mexico representative for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
"And for that same reason, he and his magazine and his co-workers were always under threat of violence," Hootson said.
According to CPJ, in 2009 unknown attackers threw a grenade into the Riodoce offices days after it published an investigation on drug trafficking. No one was hurt.
By the group's count, some 40 journalists have been killed in Mexico for reasons confirmed as related to their work since 1992. An additional 50 were slain during the same period under circumstances that have not been clarified.
Journalists targeted in Mexico are most often local reporters in places where the rule of law is tenuous, but there have also been killings of journalists with national profiles such as Valdez and Regina Martinez Perez, who was slain in 2012. The recent spate of slayings includes Miroslava Breach, correspondent for La Jornada in the northern state of Chihuahua, who was gunned down in March.
Sinaloa has long been a drug trafficking center and is home to the Sinaloa Cartel headed by notorious kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is in a New York prison awaiting trial on multiple charges. Experts say Guzman's arrest last year and extradition in January have led to upheaval in the area as rival factions war for control of the gang.
"Drug trafficking there is a way of life," Valdez said in an October interview with Rompeviento TV. "You have to assume the task that falls to you as a journalist — either that or you play dumb. I don't want to be asked, 'What were you doing in the face of so much death ... why didn't you say what was going on?'"
Hootson described Valdez as a warm, friendly man, well-liked by other journalists who frequently sought his help to navigate and understand the complex, dangerous state.
"His door was always open. ... Everybody always deferred to his knowledge," Hootson said. "And in that sense, it's a huge loss for everybody."
And internationally known Mexican journalist was shot to death in Sinaloa. Javier Valdez was pulled from his car about one block from his publishing office and shot multiple times. His at least the six journalist to be killed in Mexico in the last two months. Has ties to San Diego. He worked with the University of San Diego's transborder Institute and his book on stories of the drug war is translated by my guest the director of the US transborder today. Javier Valdez was a friend. Can you tell us more about his work as a journalist and the work that you collaborated on. He was indeed a friend and is is a hard date to his friends with almost everybody in his field. He's a very likable guy and very eccentric. He was somebody who was known for wearing this little straw hat. He hated public appearances even when he got really famous and published a number of them pulled his hat down to his eyebrow he swore a little too much for public presentations and could be aggressively flirting are really sullen and withdrawn. Have quite a personality. Also somebody who men toward a whole generation either directly or indirectly of Mexican journalist. Because of the nature of his work academics like me and others. These people are historians and anthropologists and sociologists. As a reporter it is totally different. He really put down a lot of models. One of the things that really stands out within has been reported that people have described him as a crime order or an expert on drug cartels. It is true but also not true. If you look at what his books were about he wrote about since -- orphans of the drug war. Women in the drug war. The displaced by the drug war. The fact that I chose to translate is about victims of kidnappings. It was about the victims and the ordinary experience. This is not a journalistic version of Mark -- Marcos. Is not about high politics for all the extravagances or the money or the weapons or the crazy crimes. It is about ordinary people's experience of this unprecedented generation long experience of violence. He founded a weekly publication in Sinaloa. The officers were the target of an attack in 2009. How did they cope with threats to themselves personally and professionally. As he must have had them over the years. There writing about the Marcos. This is something that can't is because they were so good at making relationships with people they read the newspapers every day and the care about the damage but they are not particularly worried about being depicted as criminals. The treated like athletes treat ESPN. The people are dangerous of politicians. Elected officials and people whose reputations depend upon being perceived as not to the not part of organized crime. One of the things that happened over the course of the career as he got closer and closer to making serious revelations about public officials. He wrote about them for a long time without really having anything other than some kind of passing threats. He personally then felt like he was in a lot more danger. The final thing I would say about that is after the killing of his colleague he started calling people out. He was really saying to the federal government in Mexico the particular agencies say not only that they were incompetent for not protecting him but accusing him of complicity. We do not know precisely what happened in this case there is a pretty strong assumption about that Strongs started -- strident voice.. Had something to do with him getting killed. I want to talk more about this impunity because it is common for killings against journalists against many people that need to be called out. What you think needs to happen to break the cycle. I think there is a particular burden on the government because they made promises for the last 10 years kind of on a regular cycle that they will increase the mechanisms. They will value the estate and have created a hotline for journalists. They have created whistleblower protections and none of this stuff seems to have worked. Whether it is just incompetence or lack of resources or too much pageantry and not enough substance the journalists themselves the people most affected are starting to see something that the. These are agents of the same political parties in the same agencies. Because of his award-winning status and his reputation. What you think that Javier will mean for the press covering drug trafficking and crime and corruption in Mexico moving forward. It is difficult because I like to sit here and say that some people made a calculated decision to sell terror among journalists and people that care that there is going to be an up swelling of support that this will be an enough is enough moment that will translate into the politics and policies and maybe even inspire a new generation of journalists. We do not have a lot of precedent for that. I have some hope that we need some support in readers and people who care about music in the United States. We need to rethink what we are doing as far as policy. I've been speaking with the director of the US transborder Institute. Thank you very much.
Valdez was recognized with the International Press Freedom Award in 2011 by CPJ, which released a report this month warning that widespread impunity leaves journalists vulnerable to attacks in Mexico.
Last Wednesday, the federal Attorney General's Office replaced the head of its division responsible for investigating journalist killings. Ricardo Sanchez Perez del Pozo, a lawyer with a background in international law and human rights, took over the post.
