Jesús Blancornelas, Mexican journalist, co-founded Zeta Magazine (b. 1936)
J. Jesús Blancornelas (November 14, 1936 – November 23, 2006) was a Mexican journalist who co-founded the Tijuana-based Zeta magazine, known for its reporting on corruption and drug trafficking. His work encompassed an extensive research on how the drug industry influences local leaders and the police in the Mexican state of Baja California – topics frequently avoided by the rest of the Mexican media.As an author of six books, Blancornelas was regarded by the press as a leading expert on organized crime and drug trafficking during his time. He was also the first man to publish a photograph of Ramón Arellano Félix, the former drug lord of the Tijuana Cartel. In response to the photo publication, the cartel attempted to kill Blancornelas in 1997, but he managed to survive the attack and continued to report on the workings of Mexico's criminal underworld.For more than two decades, Blancornelas received several international press awards for his defiance of Mexico's old regime status quo, where bribe-taking and censorship by the government were commonplace in Mexico's media. After his death, the Los Angeles Times and the Committee to Protect Journalists described him as "the spiritual godfather of modern Mexican journalism." Blancornelas is also regarded as a pioneer in the push for press freedom in Mexico.