Griselda Triana, the wife of slain journalist Javier Valdez, attends his memorial service at a funeral parlor in Culiacan, In Sinaloa state, Mexico, on May 16, 2017. Triana wrote a letter calling for justice in his case on May 15, 2020, the third anniversary of his murder. (Reuters/Jesus Bustamante)
Griselda Triana, the wife of slain journalist Javier Valdez, attends his memorial service at a funeral parlor in Culiacan, In Sinaloa state, Mexico, on May 16, 2017. Triana wrote a letter calling for justice in his case on May 15, 2020, the third anniversary of his murder. (Reuters/Jesus Bustamante)

On third anniversary of his murder, Javier Valdez’s wife calls for justice in open letter

Today, on the third anniversary of the murder of her husband, Mexican reporter Javier Valdez Cárdenas, journalist Griselda Triana wrote an open letter calling for justice and describing the ordeal of her family in the wake of his killing. The letter was published in several Mexican news outlets and by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Valdez was murdered on May 15, 2017, in Culiacán, the capital of the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa. He was the co-founder of investigative weekly Ríodoce and the correspondent in Sinaloa for national newspaper La Jornada. Valdez was a 2011 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award.

Three years after the killing, only one suspect has been convicted. On February 27, Heriberto Picos Barraza, who drove the getaway car used for the murder, was sentenced to 14 years and 8 months in prison for his role in the attack. Another suspect, Juan Francisco Picos Barrueta, is awaiting trial.

In January 2020, Mexican federal authorities issued an arrest warrant for Dámaso López Sererrano, a Sinaloan former drug lord currently imprisoned in the United States, who they believe masterminded Valdez’s murder.

The letter, which CPJ translated to English, can be read here. The original version in Spanish can be read here.