Alleged killer of Mexican journalist Valdez held

MEXICO CITY: The alleged perpetrator behind the murder of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez – a longtime AFP collaborator killed in May 2017 – is in police custody, Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said.

”A few moments ago, they detained the alleged perpetrator of the murder of journalist Javier Valdez, whose life was unfortunately taken last year in #Sinaloa,” tweeted Navarrete on Monday.

Valdez, an award-winning journalist who covered Mexico’s powerful drug cartels, was gunned down in broad daylight on May 15 outside the offices of Riodoce, the newspaper he co-founded in Culiacan, the capital of his native Sinaloa state. He was 50 years old.

He was one of the most prominent chroniclers of Mexico’s deadly drug war in a state where Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, now imprisoned in the United States, once ruled.

In 2011, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists honored Valdez for his work with the Freedom of Expression Award.

Valdez was among at least 11 journalists murdered in Mexico last year, making it the deadliest country in the world for the press after Syria, according to watchdog group Reporters Without Borders. — AFP