Renowned crime reporter killed in Mexico

By Nancy Caouette

MEXICO CITY (AA) – Javier Valdez, a veteran journalist who specialized in covering drug trafficking and violence, was murdered Monday in Culiacan, the capital of the violent state of Sinaloa.

Valdez was driving his car when armed men intercepted the vehicle and shoot him repeatedly, according to RioDoce, a local media outlet co-founded by the award-winning journalist.

"The state must respond to these circumstances," Sinaloa prosecutor Juan Jose Rios said during a news conference.

President Enrique Pena Nieto condemned the attack. ‘’I reiterate our commitment to freedom of expression and the press, fundamental to our democracy’’, he wrote on Twitter.

The death of the veteran reporter upset Mexico’s journalistic community that will organize several marches Tuesday across the country to demand justice.

Valdez is at least the sixth journalist to be killed in the last two months in Mexico.

He was renowned as one of the most critical voices of drug trafficking and corruption in Mexico and also wrote several books, including one on the dangers journalists face while reporting on criminal issues.

“Being a journalist is like being on a blacklist. They will decide, even if you have flak jackets and escorts, the day they are going to kill you,” Valdez once told RioDoce. “There is no safe way to do journalism in Mexico, bullets pass too close.”

Valdez received the prestigious International Press Freedom Award in 2011, awarded by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

The watchdog journalism committee said at least 40 journalists have been murdered in Mexico for reasons linked to their jobs in the last 25 years, while 50 others were killed under unclear circumstances.

"By not establishing a clear link to journalism or providing any motives for the killings most investigations remain opaque’’, the group said in a recent report press freedom in Mexico.

Mexico’s attorney general’s office said Monday an investigation has been opened into Valdez’s murder.