Javier Valdez, a Mexican journalist, was assassinated “in broad daylight” in Mexico on Monday. He was 50.
Valdez, who had made a name for himself covering drug trafficking and organized crime, was in his car on a busy street in Sinaloa when attackers shot and killed him on Monday, according to The Atlantic.
Valdez was a correspondent for Mexico City daily newspaper La Jornada, and he was also the co-founder of Riodoce, a regional weekly newspaper in Sinaloa.
Valdez was “an essential source” for journalists who also wanted to report on the drug violence that had been plaguing Sinaloa, the Los Angeles Times noted.
According to The Atlantic, Valdez was well aware of the dangers of being a journalist who focused on violence and crime.
“Being a journalist is like being on a blacklist,” Valdez said last year. “Even though you may have bulletproofing and bodyguards, [the gangs] will decide what day they are going to kill you.”
According to The Associated Press, Valdez is now one of at least six journalists who have been killed in Mexico just this year alone.
When authorities arrived to the scene of the murder, Valdez’ laptop and cellphone were gone, the AP noted.
Prosecutors say they’re investigating the motive for the killing.
The murder comes eight years after unidentified attackers threw a grenade into the Riodoce offices after the paper published a drug trafficking investigation. None of the newspapers’ employees were harmed, though.
Valdez’ brother, Rafael, issued a statement to the Agence France-Presse, where Valdez was a contributor for more than a decade, according to The Atlantic.
“He was very reserved when it came to his work. He never talked about it so as not to drag people into it. I asked him several times whether he was afraid,” Rafael said of his brother’s journalism career. “He said yes, he was a human being. So I asked him why he risked his life and he replied: ‘It is something I like doing, and someone has to do it. You have to fight to change things.’”
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