Saying ’No to Silence’: Javier Valdez and the Drug War That Killed Him Andrew Kennis - CIP America’s Program
go to original June 23, 2017

Saying "No to Silence": Hear Murdered Mexican Journalist Javier Valdez in His Own Words (Democracy Now!)

One month ago today a burly, middle-aged reporter set out from the offices of the news weekly Riodoce that he co-founded some fourteen years ago, walking toward his car at high noon. In the preceding days, the internationally renowned journalist had admitted to people close to him that he felt anxious about his safety.

He had just penned what would be his last column that morning when his life was brought to an abrupt end by two unknown assassins using a silencer. The killers reportedly dragged him from his car and shot as many as 13 rounds into his body, by day, in the middle of a city street.

To the shock of the nation and his many readers, fellow journalists and admirers in Mexico and abroad, Javier Valdez Cárdenas was murdered openly in his hometown of Culiacan, Sinaloa – a capital city notorious for being located in the middle of a fierce drug war.

The reason behind the shock was not that hit men struck a journalist. There have been eight journalists assassinated in Mexico this year alone, a record-breaking statistic that has propelled the nation to the top of the list of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to practice journalism, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The reason for the shock was also not because Valdez covered a safe beat. He didn’t. His reporting, along with others at Riodoce, focuses on the politics and on-the-ground realities of the drug war.

The reason the murder shocked so many people out of complacency is that Valdez was arguably the most recognized journalist yet to have been assassinated in Mexico’s long and sordid history of impunity.

Valdez was a prolific and widely read author. In the span of his 50 years he published seven books and earned numerous national and international awards. Riodoce has been an invaluable news source due to its incisive reporting and commentary on the drug war, a rarity in the region where many other news outlets have shuttered because of safety concerns. Valdez was also the Sinaloa correspondent for La Jornada, a nationally-distributed daily.

Previously, Mexico-based journalists believed that a high profile gained by publishing in high-circulation outlets or racking up awards would serve as a measure of protection. Several years ago when I met Valdez and asked him about reporting on sensitive drug war-related material, he advised me to seek outlets with as major a circulation as possible. Many journalists thought 2017 couldn’t get any worse, following the murder of the La Jornada correspondent in another drug war-infested area (Chihuahua) this past March, and now they were confronted with a nightmare scenario: Who could truly be safe if they could assassinate someone as famous as Javier Valdez in broad daylight?

Marcos Vizcarra, a reporter for the newspaper Noroeste in Culiacan, told the Associated Press that reporters across the country “don’t know what to do,” following the Valdez murder and felt, “nervous, unsettled.”

Despite the widespread outcry that came in the aftermath of Valdez’s assassination, authorities have not made a single arrest in the case. An examination of official developments and the concerns behind those who most closely monitor journalism safety and the lack of justice in Mexico helps shed light on where matters have gone and how they are expected to progress.

Read the rest at CIP America's Program

Related: The Mexican Border Newspaper That Died With Its Star Reporter (TIME)

Related: The Failure of Rule of Law, Not Just Bullets, Caused Journalist’s Death (SacBee)

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