Mexico Arrests Alleged Killer of Drug War Journalist, Says Minister

A journalist shows a picture of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez, murdered on the eve, during a protest by journalists in Mexico City on May 16, 2017. Mexico ranks third in the world for the number of journalists killed, after Syria and Afghanistan, according to media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF). PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images

MEXICO CITY–Mexico’s interior minister on Monday said that authorities had arrested the alleged murderer of a renowned journalist in northern Mexico whose death had become emblematic of a spike in violence across the country.

Javier Valdez was assassinated last year in the state of Sinaloa, which has been the scene of violent battles between gangs following the arrest and subsequent extradition early last year to the United States of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.