Journalist Lourdes Maldonado was murdered in Tijuana, Baja California, this Sunday night. He is the third journalist assassinated this week, after the murder of Alfonso Margarito Martinez Esquivel (also in Tijuana) and from Jose Luis Gamboa-Arenas (in Veracruz).
His body was found in his own vehicle with gunshots, near the Las Villas subdivision, reported the weekly Zeta.
The first versions indicate that Maldonado was shot in the head and that when medical attention arrived he no longer had vital signs, reported Elliott Valdez at Eighth.
Maldonado López had recently won a lawsuit against former Governor Jaime Bonilla Valdez, owner of the communication company PSN, for labor debts, since the journalist worked for said company.
Even that same week, the Special Conciliation and Arbitration Board had ordered the commercial seizure of the PSN company in favor of Lourdes Maldonado.
In 2019, the journalist attended the morning conference at the National Palace where she told President Andrés Manuel López Obrador about the labor situation that was happening and asked for justice, since from that time she feared for her life.
This is what he said in the morning conference on March 26, 2019: Thank you, Mr President. I am Lourdes Maldonado, I have been representing the weekly Séptimo Día, with 13 years of existence. And I come, precisely, from the city of Tijuana, I did not know that you were going to Tijuana tomorrow, otherwise I would have waited for you there too.
Well, in Tijuana there are a lot of questions, sir, especially because it is one of the most dynamic cities in the north of the country, in the northwest, precisely, and to support that dynamism and that growth there was a lot of talk, because that is how they are in their program , of the support to this city, in the sense of the Free Zone so that all trade is improved, companies grow and that the maquiladora industry continues to be part of the highest Gross Domestic Product in the country.
In Tijuana there is no unemployment in that part, precisely because of the support of the maquiladora industry, but in the Free Zone there is still we citizens do not see the benefits, because we do not know how it works.
On the other hand, the next question is about customs, because customs was going to travel 25 kilometers, precisely in support of the Free Zone, but nothing has happened yet, customs is still in the same place, we do not see how the benefit, at least, Mr. President, the ordinary citizens, the citizens who want to see how we can take advantage of or take advantage of and support ourselves in that economy through the Free Zone and because the border is crossed.
On the other hand, the huachicoleo there does occur, but it is not the huachicoleo that is known, as it has been handled here, but rather it is the organized business, because it is very common that in most gas stations they do not give us the full liters .
So what good is it that gasoline has dropped a little if it is a common practice among businessmen, then, we call it business huachicoleo.
Lord, on the other hand, I come also here to ask you for support, help and labor justice, because I even fear for my life, because it is a lawsuit that I have been with for six years and the award came out in my favor at the Federal Conciliation Board. However, they recently returned the file and in three weeks it came out absolutely against me.
So, I come here to ask for that support, that justice, and I do it because it is about a strong figure in politics who does not intend to pay me much less, I even filed an injunction, but I do it because it is about his licensed senator, from its super coordinator of delegations and its candidate, the next candidate for governor of Baja California, Mr. Jaime Bonilla.
That is why I am here asking for your support, because you have said that taking away or not paying employees their salaries is unfair and is even a sin, sir.
And I know that against the corruption that exists in the Federal Conciliation Board and the one that I am experiencing now in Tijuana with this powerful character, I can do nothing or little, nothing without your support, Mr. President.
Thanks a lot.