On 14th April 2017, human rights defender and journalist Maximino Rodriguez Palacios was brutally killed by unknown assailants as he parked his car and was looking for a wheelchair for his wife who has mobility issues, in La Paz, Baja California Sur. Maximino died instantly but his wife was not injured.

Rodríguez was a spokesman for the state Superior Court of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office, and a correspondent for newspapers El Heraldo and Excélsior. The newspaper said he wrote a column on security and policy.

In addition, Rodriguez had been working for more than two years for “Colectivo Pericú” a blog founded in 2009, with the objective of highlighting issues related to citizens rights, corruption, abuse of power and cases of discrimination. The project had been established to counter the silence of traditional media on these issues in the region of Baja California Sur.

Maximino had frequently stated that he was not scared, that he was confronting the issues and was prepared to put his name to his articles. But his articles and columns had antagonised organised crime and he was shot down as a result.