MEXICO CITY — Journalist Javier Valdez focused his award-winning reporting on the victims of violence in Mexico, including the orphans left behind by a failed war on drugs and the reporters who were assassinated for their muckracking work. On May 15, 2017, the co-founder of the independent newspaper Rio Doce was fatally shot down in broad daylight in Culiacan, Sinaloa, believed to be murdered by some of the same forces that he had denounced in his book Narcoperiodismo (Narcojournalism) released just a few months before.

A year after his death and ahead of the country's presidential elections in July, Rio Doce co-founder Ismael Bojórquez and other independent media outlets and press freedom groups have organized a week of rallies and events to celebrate his life but also demand answers and action so that journalists like him are not killed with impunity.

The week of action's main event is a march in Culiacán on Tuesday that ends at the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s office. Vigils and protests are also being held in Monterrey, Mexico City and other cities.

“They didn’t kill Javier, they can’t kill our memory; his legacy lives on through his work," said Bojórquez. "We will keep demanding justice.”