In the US trial of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, a former subordinate to the cartel chief accused his sons of murdering a journalist. Javier Valdez insisted on publishing a controversial interview despite threats from Guzmán's Sinaloa cartel, Dámaso López said in court in New York. The journalist did not obey "the threats of my buddy's children and that's why they killed him".
Valdez was shot dead in May 2017 at the age of 50 in Culiacán, Sinaloa state. He was one of the most well-known journalists who had researched the Mexican drug war.
López told the jury that his name had been mentioned by another journalist in connection with an action against Guzmán's children. To refute this "completely wrong" accusation, he gave Valdez a telephone interview. Guzmán's sons had come behind it and wanted to urge Valdez with threats to abandon the publication.
Sinaloa cartel smuggled nearly 155 tons of cocaine to the United States
López was, according to the US Department of Justice, vice-director of a Mexican high-security prison, escaped from the "El Chapo" in 2001. As a result, joined López Guzmán's Sinaloa cartel. He was arrested a few days before the murder of Valdez, and was sentenced last year by a court in Alexandria, Virginia, for drug trafficking.
REUTERS
"El Chapo" after his arrest in 2016
His former boss has to answer in New York for, among other things, drug trafficking, arms trafficking and money laundering and face life imprisonment (read more about the trial of "El Chapo" here). According to the indictment, the Mexican Sinaloa cartel under his leadership allegedly smuggled nearly 155 tons of cocaine and large quantities of other drugs into the United States between 1989 and 2014. Accompanied by massive security measures, Guzmán's trial began in early November and is set to run for around four months.
In Mexico, more than one hundred journalists have been murdered since 2000. Most of the acts were not punished.