Mexico City, May 17 (RHC)-- In Mexico, award-winning journalist Javier Valdez has been assassinated in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.  Valdez was a longtime reporter on drug trafficking and organized crime. He wrote for the prominent newspaper La Jornada.  He was killed Monday after gunmen opened fire on his car in the city of Culiacán. 

His death marks the fifth reported killing of a journalist in Mexico this year.  Only hours after his assassination, gunmen opened fire on another journalist, Sonia Córdoba, and her son Jonathan Rodríguez Córdoba, in the state of Jalisco.  Córdoba is the deputy director of the weekly magazine El Costeño.  She survived the attack and is in critical condition.  Her son, who also wrote for the magazine, was killed.  

Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous places to be a journalist.  Since 2000, more than 100 journalists have been murdered in Mexico.