{"id":319639,"date":"2017-05-16T10:07:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T10:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=319639"},"modified":"2017-05-16T10:07:32","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T10:07:32","slug":"renowned-mexican-drug-trade-reporter-gunned-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=319639","title":{"rendered":"Renowned Mexican drug trade reporter gunned down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mexican journalist Javier Valdez, known for his award-winning coverage of the drug trade, has been shot dead.<\/p>\n

Unidentified attackers opened fire on him on Monday in Culiacan city in the north-western state of Sinaloa, where he lived and worked.<\/p>\n

Valdez, 50, received the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in 2011 for his work.<\/p>\n

He is one of several journalists who have been killed in Mexico this year.<\/p>\n

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Valdez was shot dead on the street near the premises of the Mexican news weekly he had founded, R\u00edodoce.<\/p>\n

During his career spanning nearly three decades, Valdez wrote extensively on drug-trafficking and organised crime in Mexico, including the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel.<\/p>\n

The cartel is believed to be responsible for an estimated 25% of all illegal drugs that enter the US via Mexico.<\/p>\n

Its founder Joaquin Guzman, also known as “El Chapo” (Shorty), was captured in 2014 and is currently in jail awaiting trial in the US.<\/p>\n

Mexico’s President Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto condemned the killing, calling it an “outrageous crime”, and added that his government remained committed to press freedom.<\/p>\n

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Sinaloa state attorney general Juan Jose Rios said they were investigating the death, and would protect Valdez’s family and colleagues.<\/p>\n

“Above all else we are interested in Javier’s family,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n

The CPJ’s Mexico representative Jan-Albert Hootsen said Valdez’s killing was “an attack on journalism, all journalists throughout Mexico”.<\/p>\n

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Valdez and his publication had been threatened before.<\/p>\n

He told the freedom of expression organisation Index on Censorship last month that a hand grenade had been thrown into R\u00edodoce’s offices in 2009, “although it only caused material damages”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had phone calls telling me to stop investigating certain murders or drug bosses. I’ve had to suppress important information because they could have my family killed if I mention it.<\/p>\n

“Sources of mine have been killed or disappeared\u2026 The government couldn’t care less. They do nothing to protect you. There have been many cases and this keeps happening.”<\/p>\n

Speaking at a launch of his book last year, he said being a journalist “is like being on a blacklist” and that gangs “will decide what day they are going to kill you”.<\/p>\n

In March, after journalist Miroslava Breach was shot dead, Valdez was quoted as saying “No to silence” and “Let them kill us all”.<\/p>\n

Like Valdez, Breach had reported on organised crime, drug-trafficking and corruption.<\/p>\n

Other Mexican journalists killed this year include freelancers Maximino Rodr\u00edguez and Cecilio Pineda Birto, according to the CPJ.<\/p>\n

The CPJ says at least 40 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mexican journalist Javier Valdez, known for his award-winning coverage of the drug trade, has been shot dead. Unidentified attackers opened fire on him on Monday in Culiacan city in the north-western state of Sinaloa, where he lived and worked. Valdez, 50, received the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[7162,493],"class_list":["post-319639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-drug-trade","tag-mexico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=319639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=319639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=319639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=319639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}