Noted journalist Javier Valdez killed in Mexico’s Sinaloa
MEXICO CITY — Javier Valdez, an award-winning reporter who specialized in covering drug trafficking and organized crime, was slain Monday in the northern state of Sinaloa, the latest in a wave of journalist killings in Mexico.
Valdez is at least the sixth journalist to be murdered in Mexico since early March, an unusually high number even for one of the world’s deadliest countries for media professionals.
Valdez was shot to death in the early afternoon in the state capital of Culiacan, near the offices of the publication he co-founded, Riodoce. State Prosecutor Juan Jose Rios visited the scene and said authorities were investigating all possible motives, including that the killing could have been due to Valdez’s work, though he gave no details.
Late Monday, the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office reported an armed attack on the deputy director of a weekly publication in the city of Autlan and her son. The woman was wounded and the 26-year-old son killed.