Juarez Reporter Murdered, Attacks on Journalists Intensify

Rodriguez launched his journalistic career as a technician and photographer for the Ciudad Juarez Channel 44 television station before moving into print during the early 1990s. His newspaper career closely paralleled the violent rise of the Juarez drug cartel and the womens slayings that became known worldwide as femicides. Popularly known as El Choco, Rodriguez was among the first reporters to write about the discoveries of raped and slain women on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez.

Rodriguezs stories, which relied a lot on police sources and often did not implicate any particular suspects, were characterized by an almost matter-of-fact quality that kept to the narrative even as violence kept escalating. On Thursday morning, Nov. 13, Rodriguez became a victim himself when a gunman who reportedly fled shot him outside his home in a waiting car.

No possible motive for the homicide was publicly disclosed, but it was reported that Rodriguez received a text threat on his cell-phone earlier this year. His killing occurred exactly one week after a severed human head was discovered at a monument to journalists in Ciudad Juarez.

Local media, government officials and Mexican and international journalist organizations quickly condemned Rodriguezs killing, which carried the trademark of organized crime.

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