Tijuana, Baja California: Journalist’s Lourdes Maldonado Killed With One Gunshot

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

The state attorney general, Ricardo Iván Carpio, reported that the journalist Lourdes Maldonado, attacked with gunfire this Sunday, January 23, she was attacked by "more than one person."

He referred that the communicator, killed on the Privado Chalco in the Las Villas subdivision, in Santa Fe, received "a single shot." However, he clarified, no shell casings were found at the crime scene.

He mentioned that once the corresponding study was done at the Forensic Medical Service, the caliber of the weapon with which she was attacked could be determined.

He also mentioned that all lines of investigation are being considered regarding the crime of the reporter, who collaborated for Radio Formula in the Fernando del Monte news space.

He added that "all the actions, cameras, interviews and others" are being taken into consideration in an effort to clarify the fact.

He said that the FGE doesn’t speculate on who or who could have arranged to kill Lourdes Maldonado.

"We are not speculating, we are starting from the processing of the scene, we are not ruling out any line of investigation," he said.

He maintained that the communicator had a protection service and regarding the last hour in which surveillance had been provided, he stated that the Prosecutor's Office is "reviewing the times so as not to lose" any details in this regard.

"We are in constant communication with the Tijuana security secretary and we know of course that there was a security deployment here in the town, particularly with her."

This Sunday night Ricardo Iván Carpio offered statements on Villa Dorada Avenue, a few meters from where the attack took place.

At this time, once the Expert Services collected evidence and processed the scene, authorities and security forces withdrew from the area, from where a vehicle unit of the Forensic Medical Service also departed, as well as a tow truck with the car in which Lourdes Maldonado was found at the time of the attack.

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This is the second journalist found dead in less than a week. On Monday, January 17, the photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel was shot to death in front of his home in the Camino Verde neighborhood.

Last Friday, the communicator proposed that a contest be created in commemoration of photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel, during the vigil at the Las Tijeras roundabout in Tijuana in which she demanded justice for the photojournalist.

A few days ago, Lourdes Maldonado announced that she had won, after nine years, a labor award for unjustified dismissal that she maintained with a company owned by the former governor, Jaime Bonilla Valdez.

It is known that Maldonado accessed the Mechanism for the Protection of Journalists for almost a year due to threats that she would have received from envoys of the now former governor, according to what she said at an ANPAC meeting.

On January 19, it was reported that PSN (Media Sport de México S.A. de C.V.) had been seized and that Bonilla Valdez had to pay her lost wages, benefits and costs, which, according to the journalist, exceeded 500 thousand pesos.

“I achieved my goal, because I never asked for more than I should have, or anything. Yes, I went in the morning, it was with the president, it is because I knew that in the northwest I had nothing to do, here Bonilla's hand and power was very great, so that's why I went to see the president," said the journalist the day of the embargo.

In 2019, Lourdes Maldonado, journalist, correspondent for national media, had exposed in a morning conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, her fear of death threats regarding this labor conflict.

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