"The Killing Fields" was my signature project

Her investigation into the women’s murders uncovered corruption at the highest levels of government. The book caused such a sensation that it was sabotaged in various ways during its initial release. A Mexican official asked the U.S. government to conduct an inquiry into her book “because it contained information that was confidential” to the Mexican and U.S. governments.

The book was blocked from a South American country, but the journalist arranged to make it available online for free of charge, although it meant sacrificing book sale proceeds. FBI agents were present at one of her book signings in El Paso, Texas, and later revealed to her that the drug cartel planned to send people to the event to confront her. The FBI said the cartel people showed up, looked around but left the bookstore without approaching her.

Ms. Washington Valdez was the first also to publicly link members of the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel to some of the women’s murders, and to expose how similar murders were occurring in other parts of Mexico and in Guatemala, where the same cartel and their associates operated. Dr. Stanley Krippner, a psychologist in California with intimate knowledge of the Juarez crimes, attributed a decrease in some of the murders to her expose.

In 2007, a powerful citizen of Mexico reiterated a previous threat against Ms. Washington Valdez. Once again, instead of backing off, she decided to continue informing the rest of the world about what was taking place in Mexico. Once again, she extended her work and collaborated on two important documentaries about the deaths, one in English (“Border Echoes”/shown in Hollywood) and one in Spanish “Bajo Juarez”/shown at international festivals). She has traveled to more than 30 cities and to others countries to speak about the murders. She has written articles and essays for magazines and journals in other languages.

Her stunning series “Death Stalks the Border,” published by the El Paso Times in 2002, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and received a Texas APME First Place Award. It was the first journalism to develop significant lines of investigation and expose the extensive corruption that impeded official investigations in Mexico. The series went online in English and Spanish, and was read by people around the world, some of who eventually made their way to the border to do their own research – journalists, academics, students, artists, musicians and others. Even today, people who read the series and her books are amazed that one reporter could carry out such a vast project single-handedly. Her 2007 book was hard-hitting and went beyond the series.

Her reputation as a seasoned and respected journalist prompted Spanish-language news media and a book publisher to invite her to publish with them. La Jornada newspaper and Proceso magazine published articles by her. She also received a national journalism award in Mexico for her reporting on the murdered women.

Due to the expertise she had developed, Ms. Washington Valdez was asked to brief a U.S. congressional delegation led by U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis, which traveled to the border to look into the slayings. Human rights investigators and law enforcement officials on both sides of the border have consulted with Ms. Washington Valdez for her knowledge about the crimes. She was also asked to provide testimony for an asylum hearing in Texas for a mother of one of the Juarez victims.

[Prepared by Suli Berg]