Javier Valdez Cárdenas (April 14, 1967 – May 15, 2017) was a Mexican journalist and founder of Ríodoce, a newspaper based in Sinaloa. He received several international awards for his writings on drug trafficking and organized crime in the Mexican Drug War.
Early life and career
Javier Valdez Cárdenas was born on April 14, 1967, in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. He graduated from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa with a degree in sociology.[1][2] In the early 1990s, Valdez Cárdenas worked as a reporter for the national TV station, Canal 3, in Culiacán. He then joined the Sinaloa-based newspaper Noroeste and became a correspondent for the Mexico City-daily newspaper La Jornada in 1998.[3]
In 2003, he and other reporters from the daily newspaper Noroeste founded Ríodoce, a weekly dedicated to crime and corruption in Sinaloa, considered one of Mexico's most violent states.[4] Valdez Cárdenas was also the author of several books on drug trafficking, including Miss Narco, which chronicles the lives of the girlfriends and wives of drug lords, and Los morros del narco: Niños y jóvenes en el narcotráfico mexicano ("The Kids of the Drug Trade: Children and teenagers in Mexican drug trafficking").
In September 2009, Ríodoce published a series on drug trafficking entitled "Hitman: Confession of an Assassin in Ciudad Juárez." One morning a few days after the conclusion of the series, a grenade was thrown into Ríodoce's office, damaging the building but causing no injuries. The attackers were never identified.[4]
Before his death, Valdez Cárdenas was married to fellow journalist and human rights defender, Griselda Triana.[7]
Awards
In 2011, Valdez Cárdenas was awarded the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists, "an annual recognition of courageous journalism".[8] In his acceptance speech, he called the violence of Mexican drug trafficking "a tragedy that should shame us", blaming the citizenry of Mexico for giving the drug war its deaths and the governments of US and Mexico for giving the drug war its guns.[9] Later in the same year, the trustees of Columbia University awarded Ríodoce the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for journalism that contributes to "inter-American understanding".[10]
Death
Demonstration against the murder of Javier Valdez, in Mexico City
On May 15, 2017, Valdez Cárdenas was shot 12 times and killed by unidentified gunmen around noon, blocks away from the Ríodoce offices in Culiacán, Sinaloa[11][12] when he was 50 years old.[13][14] The murder was condemned by the U.S. embassy in Mexico, the United Nations, and the European Union.[15] A memorial to Cardenas was made in the Uncensored Library with his work available to be read.[16]
