Culiacán (Mexico) (AFP)
The widow of Javier Valdez, a Mexican journalist and AFP collaborator assassinated in 2017, said Friday that Mexican justice had condemned "the weak link" in this case.
"The Koala is the weak link in a chain of accomplices," said Griselda Triana at a press conference in Culiacan (north-west).
"Le Koala" is the nickname of Heriberto Picos Barraza, sentenced Thursday to 14 years and 8 months in prison for his role as driver in this assassination committed on May 15, 2017.
"Justice has not been completely done," she added.
According to the accusation, the main perpetrators of the assassination are Luis Ildefonso Sanchez and Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto.
The murder of the co-founder of the weekly Riodoce and collaborator of the daily La Jornada, hailed for his investigations into the drug trade, had sparked international outrage.
Picos Barraza, who brought them to the scene, was tried in a brief trial after assisting in the investigation.
"This short trial leaves my sons and me with a bittersweet taste," says Griselda Triana, because "there are no confessions."
She is convinced that the assassination was sponsored by Damaso Lopez Serrano, a drug trafficker furious at having been criticized in an article by Riodoce, and now incarcerated in the United States.
Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto was offered to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of almost 21 years in prison, if he chose Lopez Serrano as a sponsor. Since he refused, he too must be tried and faces 22 to 50 years in prison.
Javier Valdez had been killed outside his office after investigations into the influence in his native region of drug trafficking networks like that of El Chapo (Joaquin Guzman).
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