The Attorney General of Veracruz, Lisbeth Aurelia Jiménez Aguirre, held a press conference to report on the progress of the investigation into the murder of journalist Luis Ángel López Valdez, which occurred in the early morning of June 11 in the Cazones neighborhood of Poza Rica.
The official detailed the actions taken from the very beginning and addressed the content of a surveillance video that was already circulating on social media before the press conference, which shows the journalist with another person in his car.
Jiménez Aguirre specified that López Valdez suffered 18 gunshot wounds, although she did not reveal whether all were entry wounds, and added that the investigation indicated he may have arrived already wounded at the location where his body was found, suggesting that the attack began in a different place than the one captured by the cameras. The prosecutor also confirmed that, although the video showed only one assailant, she did not rule out the possibility of a mastermind or a second attacker.
The surveillance footage—whose leak the prosecutor herself acknowledged—showed the taxi driven by López Valdez turning onto 18th Street, followed by the journalist fleeing the vehicle.
Jiménez Aguirre indicated that the cameras captured an unidentified person traveling with him moments before the attack.
The prosecutor clarified that the videos were not clear and that the images were taken from a distance.
Nevertheless, authorities were working to identify the companion by analyzing the victim’s cell phone records, with the aim of tracing his communications prior to the incident and determining if he had arranged any meetings.
