authorities declined to say whether their investigations are still active. Only the inquiry in Spain is known to be closed. The series examines the power and activities of Mexican cartels and their collusion with corrupt government officials. The international collaboration was organized by Forbidden Stories, a nonprofit group based in Paris whose mission is to continue the reporting of murdered journalists. This is the first in a series of five articles, called "The Cartel Project," involving 60 journalists from 18 countries. The team of reporters discovered that law enforcement authorities in Mexico, the United States and Spain had opened inquiries into allegations that Herrera colluded with leaders of the Zeta cartel while he was governor and took money from them for his campaign, as well as allegations that he was involved in money laundering while later serving in a diplomatic post in Barcelona. It is being published by Forbidden Stories and its partners beginning today. The story of Martínez’s death and her work is the first of a five-part series, “The Cartel Project,” which involved 60 journalists from 25 media outlets. (Miguel Tovar/LatinContent/Getty Images) RIGHT: Martínez’s gravesite in Xalapa, Mexico. LEFT: Writer and journalist Elena Poniatowska holds a photo of Regina Martínez during a 2017 protest in Mexico City calling for an end to violence against journalists. (Miguel Tovar/LatinContent/Getty Images) Martínez’s gravesite in Xalapa, Mexico. Writer and journalist Elena Poniatowska holds a photo of Regina Martínez during a 2017 protest in Mexico City calling for an end to violence against journalists. International press groups consider Veracruz to be the most dangerous place in the world to report the news. “What the local press did not want to publish was published through Regina Martínez,” said Jorge Carrasco, Proceso’s editor in chief.Īt least 27 journalists have been killed in the state of Veracruz since 2003. Martínez was one of the very few reporters who dared to refuse bribes or to ignore cartel threats aimed at censoring the news. locator map of veracruz mexico (Daniela Santamari�a/The Washington Post) Even young women who attended their sex parties. She sought to prove the traffickers and their accomplices had executed hundreds of people: Teenage dealers and entire families. In articles for the national investigative weekly Proceso, Martínez, who was killed at age 48, told her readers that two successive governors in her home state of Veracruz looted the treasury and allowed cartels to operate freely with the help of local and state police. The assailant broke her jaw with brass knuckles, then wrapped a rag around her neck, squeezing the life out of the region’s best hope for accountability and justice. At barely 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, she scratched and struggled to fight off her attacker, leaving skin under her fingernails. The intruder probably surprised her in the bathroom, from behind, investigators believe. Someone broke in through the metal door from her beloved garden patio, the tiny patch of tranquility that kept her from moving from her modest cinder-block home to a safer location. XALAPA, Mexico - Regina Martínez’s death was brutal.
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