El Diario de Ciudad Juárez
November 13, 2008, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

An unidentified assailant gunned down Rodríguez, 40, as the veteran crime reporter sat in a company sedan in the driveway of his home. Rodríguez's eight-year-old daughter, whom he was preparing to take to school, watched from the back seat.

Rodríguez had told CPJ that he had been receiving threats and that intimidation had become routine in the violent border city. "The risks here are high and rising, and journalists are easy targets," Rodríguez told CPJ. "But I can't live in my house like a prisoner. I refuse to live in fear." Days before he was murdered, Rodríguez had written an article accusing a local prosecutor's nephew of having links to drug traffickers.

In July 2009, the lead federal investigator working on the Rodríguez murder was shot to death. His replacement was murdered less than a month later. In an April 2010 interview with The Texas Tribune, an online news outlet, Juárez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz said there were no leads or suspects in the case.

Medium:Print
Job:Print Reporter
Beats Covered:Crime
Gender:Male
Local or Foreign:Local
Freelance:No
Type of Death:Murder
Suspected Source of Fire:Criminal Group
Impunity:Yes
Taken Captive:No
Tortured:No
Threatened:Yes

 

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