Mexican journalist Javier Valdez's alleged killer arrested

Posted by DD

 JavierValdez, an award-winning journalist who covered Mexico's powerful drug cartels, was gunned down in broad daylight just over a year ago in May 2017  outside the offices of Riodoce, the newspaper he co-founded in Culiacan, the capital of his native Sinaloa state. He was 50 years old.

Borderland Beat posted the news of his murder on the same day he was assassinated, May 15, 2017.  

The subsequent list of stories that we published chronicling his career  as journalist, some stories he wrote and his death is too long to list here but if you will just type "Javier Valdez in the search box at the bottom right side of this page it will take you to probably a dozen stories about one of the most prominent chroniclers of Mexico's deadly drug war.

Reuters reported Mexico’s interior minister on Monday said that authorities had arrested the alleged murderer of a renowned journalist in northern Mexico whose death had become emblematic of a spike in violence across the country.

 The Interior ministry spokesmen said they had no further details.  (I hope the details will show he is a guilty perpetrator and not just someone it was convenient for the govt. to charge to improve PRI's chances in the Presidential election in slightly more than 2 months)

However Renato Sales, Mexico's national security commissioner. was a little more informative.  He stated at a press conference that "it is alleged that the homicide of Javier Valdez...was linked to the various works of journalistic investigation in which he covered drug trafficking and organized crime,"

He disclosed that the  presumed assassin was identified as Heriberto "N" and was linked to a drug trafficking group in the state. Sales said the suspect would appear in front of a federal judge in the state capital of Culiacan and that more arrest warrants would be issued in relation to the journalist's murder.

 Authorities declined to give further details of the arrest, but Valdez' friend and RioDoce editor Isamel Bojorquez said the suspect had been arrested in the border city of Tijuana. He said the man had been involved in an organized crime group, although he did not say which one.

 RioDoce reported that the suspect had been named as a 26-year-old known by the alias "Koala." It quoted special prosecutor Ricardo Sanchez Perez del Pozo, who said the suspect had been driving the car that intercepted Valdez when he was killed on May 15, 2017. There were allegedly three attackers in the car.

 The Committee to Protect Journalist issued a statement;  "The arrest of a suspect in the murder of Javier Valdez Cárdenas is a welcome step, but we urge the Mexican authorities to identify all those responsible for the killing, including the mastermind," said CPJ Mexico Representative Jan-Albert Hootsen. "Too often, investigations into the murders of Mexican journalists stall after low-level suspects have been arrested, which allows impunity to thrive."

The reporter, known for his signature straw hat, was the founder of Sinaloa’s RioDoce online newspaper. 

Shortly before his murder he published a book called “Narcoreporting,” where he wrote about the dangers faced by journalists who insisted on covering the country’s drug war, despite risks of angering gangs and authorities.  He made no secret of his disdain for the cartels. 

 

 The award-winning writer (In 2011, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists honored Valdez for his work with the prestigious Freedom of Expression Award)   was known for his nuanced examinations of Mexico's drug scene, detailing the interplay between the worlds of crime, politics, and law-enforcement.

Valdez's widow, Griselda, cautiously welcomed the arrest.

"If they can demonstrate that this is really the killer... we'll need to know why he did it, what the motive was and who gave the order," she told AFP.

"I hope it will be soon," she said in Mexico City, where she moved after Javier's murder out of concern for her and her children's safety. "I think there's a possibility the crime will be solved."