Drug-Crusading Editor Gunned Down in Mexico

A crusading newspaper editor was gunned down in daylight in a town bordering the United States, in what colleagues and officials described Wednesday as a chilling sign of mounting drug violence in Mexico.

Benjamin Flores Gonzalez was the first Mexican journalist killed by drug traffickers in at least seven years, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Flores Gonzalez was the editor of a small daily in San Luis Rio Colorado, across the border from Yuma, Ariz., and about 40 miles from the California line.

His death raised concerns that other Mexican journalists might become targets, especially as newspapers become more independent and more fearless in their willingness to report on the drug trade and to criticize government officials who help drug traffickers.

“This seems more like Colombia than Mexico. It seems like another step in the escalating power and violence of drug traffickers,” said Joel Simon, an official with the journalists’ committee.

Flores Gonzalez had received frequent threats because of aggressive reporting about illegal drugs by La Prensa, the paper he founded, colleagues said. He also wrote a column called “No Confirmado” (Unconfirmed), which attacked drug traffickers and the police and politicians who aid them.

In past attacks, the newspaper’s windows had been broken and the building riddled with bullets, but no one had been hurt before Tuesday, said news editor Jesus Barraza.

Flores Gonzalez, 29, had just parked his pickup outside the newspaper’s office about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday when a gray car pulled up behind him, Barraza said.

Barraza gave this account: One of four occupants of the car jumped out and opened fire on the journalist with an AK-47 assault rifle. Flores Gonzalez crumpled to the ground, and the gunman returned to the car for a .22-caliber pistol and fired three more shots at the journalist’s head. Flores Gonzalez died at the scene.

State Atty. Gen. Rolando Tavares said authorities believed that drug traffickers ordered the killing.

“Someone wanted to avenge the commentaries and denunciations done by this medium,” he said.

The gunman fled following the slaying, and no suspects are in custody, authorities said.

La Prensa avidly covered narcotics news in Sonora state, a major transshipment point for cocaine headed for the United States. Among the paper’s biggest stories was the heist in May of half a ton of cocaine from the state attorney general’s office in San Luis Rio Colorado. Federal police, prosecutors and a soldier were charged last month in the crime.

Barraza said the editor had become particularly worried after receiving an anonymous death threat about two months ago.

At least a dozen Mexican journalists have been killed because of their work since 1984, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The risks appear to be growing. Once largely subservient to the government, Mexican newspapers are becoming increasingly independent. Journalists are launching unprecedented investigations into the burgeoning drug trade and the corruption that supports it.

Before becoming an editor, Flores Gonzalez had worked as private secretary to the then-governor of Baja California, Ernesto Ruffo Appel, the first opposition-party member to head a state in decades.

A native of San Luis Rio Colorado, Flores Gonzalez founded La Prensa five years ago because he felt other newspapers were too timid, Barraza said.

Times researcher Helena Sundman contributed to this report.