Mexico: the murderer of Javier Valdez condemned, a glimmer of hope for the press

Text by: Alix Hardy Follow

In Mexico, a henchman of the Sinaloa cartel was sentenced on Thursday 27 February to fourteen years and eight months in prison for having murdered the Mexican journalist Javier Valdez in 2017. Almost three years after the disappearance of this recognized journalist and specialist in organized crime, this conviction is a ray of hope in a country where ten journalists were murdered in 2019.

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From our correspondent in Mexico,

The material perpetrator of the assassination of Javier Valdez, a prominent Mexican journalist, is now behind bars. A henchman from the Sinaloa cartel, Heriberto Picos Barraza, aka Le Koala, admitted to being one of the culprits in the assassination of Javier Valdez .

In return for the accelerated confession, the court reduced its sentence from 22 to 14 years and eight months in prison. This killer is one of the two accused in the assassination of Javier Valdez . This journalist, recognized for his exemplary investigative work on organized crime, and threatened for a long time, was assassinated on May 15, 2017, just a few meters from the offices of the investigative newspaper he had co-founded, Riodoce .

This crime had shaken Mexico. By assassinating Valdez, organized crime silenced one of the fairest and most respected voices in Mexican journalism. In Mexico, the crimes against journalists remain overwhelmingly unpunished.

BREAKING: After agreeing to an abbreviated trial, Heriberto “N” alias 'El Koala' was sentenced today to 14 years and 8 months in prison for partipating in the murder of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas.

Hope for justice?

This conviction is a step in the right direction: the murderer of a journalist has been apprehended, tried and sentenced. He will therefore pay for his actions according to the rules of justice. And this is to be emphasized in Mexico where the majority of assassinations of journalists are never resolved or condemned. In its Global Impunity Index published at the end of 2019, the NGO Committee to Protect Journalists lists 49 murders of journalists, including 30 unsolved in Mexico since 2009.

As expressed by Griselda Triana, the widow of Valdez, at the end of this hearing. " It is a small step forward in justice, but we will never have the truth ." Indeed, justice has not yet succeeded in clarifying definitively the circumstances of the assassination of Valdez. Who ordered his execution, and why?

►Read also : Violence against journalists in Mexico: the Mago Torres investigation

One evokes that an article would have displeased one of the leaders of a cell of the cartel of Sinaloa, in bickering with the sons of the deposed chief El Chapo Guzman . However, the defendants have so far given no real explanation. In addition, the alleged moral author of this assassination, Damaso Lopez Serrano, leader of one of the branches of the cartel, is not in the hands of Mexican justice.

He traveled to the United States himself in 2017, where he is now testifying against his former partners. Information precious enough to be able to negotiate with American justice.

Ten journalists murdered in 2019

In recent years, murders of journalists have been on the rise. In 2019, Mexico was the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, on a par with Syria where an open conflict is taking place.

In Mexico, there are areas of the country that are "information black holes", that is to say areas where no journalist dares to write because the threat, both of organized crime and of authorities, is too large. Regions where we just don't know what's going on.

There is also censorship, or self-censorship: journalists in certain regions, such as Sinaloa where Javier Valdez worked, have learned to walk on a very fine line between what can be written and what is not. An invisible line which can be fatal if it is crossed.

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• Mexico
• Freedom of press
• Human rights
• Media

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