Javier Valdez was an award-winning Mexican journalist at Ríodoce in Culiacán, Sinaloa. For years he bravely covered the issue of drug trafficking, and for that he was murdered.

Javier Valdez Profile

Watch: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) International Press Freedom Award 2011 speech in full.

If you would like to explore other profiles on our dedicated website - assassination.globalinitiative.net. Please help us mark the death anniversaries by using the hashtag #AssassinationWitness

Download the free Faces of Assassination e-book

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Born and bred in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Marielle Franco was a passionate politician - fighting against rampant police violence in the favelas she called home.

Marielle represented communities who are often marginalized from politics, threatening the established system. For that she was likely killed.

Marielle Franco Profile

If you would like to explore other profiles on our dedicated website - assassination.globalinitiative.net. Please help us mark the death anniversaries by using the hashtag #AssassinationWitness

Download the free Faces of Assassination e-book

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

It's an election year in Mexico and according to the government at least 64 Mexican politicians have been murdered in the past six months. Yet this phenomenon is not exclusive to Mexico - In Italy, 134 politicians were killed between 1974 and 2014. In Colombia, in 2019, seven political candidates were murdered. And in Uganda, 54 people were murdered in November 2020 during an election campaign.

The assassination of politicians by organized crime needs greater attention – these murders have a series impact of politics, corruption, and communities across the world.

Presenter: Siria Gastelum Felix, the Emmy Award-winning Journalist and Director of the Resilience Fund at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Speakers:

Gemma Dipoppa, Post-Doctoral Fellow in Political Science at Stanford University.

Antônio Sampaio, Senior Analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, Co-Founder & Chief Research Officer at Noria Research / PhD Sorbonne University and member of the GI Network of Experts

Featured Profile: Marielle Franco

Help keep their stories alive – by going to our website – assassination.globalinitiative.net, subscribe to our newsletter and this podcast series. Help us remember the death anniversaries, using our hashtag #AssassinationWitness.

Faces of Assassination e-Book