Project Miroslava

At 7 a.m. on March 23, 2017, Miroslava Breach, a well-known journalist in Mexico, got in her car outside her home in Chihuahua City in Northern Mexico, to drive her 14-year-old son to school. A man appeared – his face hidden by a hat – and opened fire. The journalist did not survive the attack.

Breach was known for her exemplary and fearless investigative work. She worked for the newspapers La Jornada and El Norte de Ciudad Juarez, reporting on organized crime and corrupt local authorities in Chihuahua, her native state which also happens to be one of the most violent in the country. During the last months of her life, she devoted her work to “narco-politicians,” members of drug cartels who have infiltrated the country’s political sphere to consolidate their control.

More than two years after the murder, investigations by both local and federal authorities have left many loose ends. None of them have established any link between this murder and climinal groups or politicians despite Miroslava’s investigations on the subject, and despite the threats she had received from them.

This is why the Mexican journalists grouped in El Colectivo 23 de marzo, in collaboration with international jouranlists from Forbidden Stories, Bellingcat andthe Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) joined forces to investigate under the name “Project Miroslava.”