A veteran journalist killed in Tijuana
Lourdes Maldonado was a veteran broadcast journalist who had worked with outlets including Televisa and Primer Sistema de Noticias and had covered local politics and general news in Tijuana. On the evening of January 23, 2022, she was shot and killed outside her home in the Santa Fe area of the city.
Her murder drew particular concern because Maldonado had previously spoken publicly about threats and had entered a state protection mechanism for journalists. Those facts made scrutiny of the investigation especially intense, but they do not by themselves establish who ordered the killing or why.
Arrests and the case against the shooters
Authorities arrested suspects in the weeks after the murder. The Baja California prosecutor's office later presented a case that three men — Guillermo Castro, Érick Contreras and Kevin Villarino — participated directly in carrying out the attack.
According to evidence summarized by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the men traveled to Maldonado's home on the day of the killing. Castro was identified as the shooter, while Contreras and Villarino remained in the vehicle. The prosecutor's office characterized the three as material perpetrators rather than the intellectual authors of the crime.
Convictions in October 2022
On October 26, 2022, the three men received prison sentences through an abbreviated proceeding. Castro was sentenced to 24 years; Contreras and Villarino received 20 years each.
The convictions established direct criminal responsibility for carrying out the killing. They did not establish who commissioned it. Authorities did not publicly provide a definitive motive during the sentencing proceedings.
The unresolved mastermind question
After the convictions, Baja California prosecutors said they were investigating additional suspects who might have ordered the murder. That inquiry is a separate accountability question from the already-adjudicated roles of the three convicted men.
Local reporting continued to describe that gap years later. In February 2026, Tijuana weekly ZETA reported that the cases of Maldonado and fellow journalist Margarito Martínez remained incomplete and that authorities had not advanced against the alleged intellectual authors. The report reflected journalists' continued demands for accountability four years after the killings.
Because no later conviction of a mastermind was located in the current review, this archive does not label the case fully solved. Nor does it identify any publicly discussed person as the person who ordered the murder unless and until a court establishes that responsibility.
Timeline
2019: Maldonado publicly raises concerns for her safety; she later enters a journalist protection mechanism.
January 23, 2022: Lourdes Maldonado is murdered outside her Tijuana home.
2022: investigators arrest several suspects and build a case against three material participants.
October 26, 2022: Guillermo Castro, Érick Contreras and Kevin Villarino receive prison sentences of 24, 20 and 20 years respectively.
2025: local journalists continue to demand identification and prosecution of whoever ordered the killing.
February 2026: ZETA reports no meaningful advance against the intellectual authors.
Current status
The case is Partially Solved / Partial Accountability. Three material perpetrators have been convicted and sentenced. As of the most recent reliable reporting reviewed in 2026, responsibility for commissioning the murder remained unresolved.