Netflix searches for the murderers of Mexican journalist Manuel Buendía almost forty years later

Image of the Netflix documentary 'Private network: who killed Manuel Buendía?' Netflix

What seemed like a normal day in the editorial office of the daily

, ended in tragedy.

On the night of May 30, 1984, the journalist and columnist Manuel Buendía Tellezgirón (Michoacán, 1926), was shot five times in the back, at the intersection of the busy Insurgentes and Reforma avenues, very close to the famous corner of La information, in the center of Mexico City.

37 years later,

, a documentary released on Netflix this July 14, seeks to unravel the hypotheses after the murder of the renowned Mexican journalist. Narrated by actor Daniel Giménez Cacho and directed by Manuel Alcalá. The director relates that he found the journalist's story when he documented himself for the film

(2018), of which he was a screenwriter and producer, when he continually found himself in the newspapers with the name of José Antonio Zorrilla, the alleged intellectual responsible for the murder of the communicator. .

Given the ineffectiveness of the police in the investigation of Buendía's murder, the foundation led by his widow has published a report in which he exposes the issues that the

columnist

was dealing with at the time of his death: drug trafficking, drug trafficking activities. the CIA, the sale of arms to Central America and the actions of the ultra-right group Los Tecos.

HEMEROTECA

• The journalist Manuel Buendía, murdered in Mexico, investigated drugs and the CIA

Buendía did not lack enemies: from members of the drug traffickers, US authorities or members of Mexican unions. The truth is that almost four decades after his death, the reasons for his murder remain a mystery. "It is because of his words, passion and courage that we made Red Privada, the documentary in which, in addition to commemorating and honoring him, we explore the relationship between journalism and politics of that time," Alcalá mentions in a letter from the creators addressed to the media.

"Red Privada" refers to the column that Buendía published in

in the eighties, and which was reproduced by more than twenty local newspapers in the country.

In this documentary the voices of several contemporary journalists are added, such as Carmen Aristegui and the writer Elena Poniatowska.

Attacks against journalists are a constant narrative in contemporary Mexican history.

According to a report by the organization Article 19, every 13 hours there is an attack against a media worker in the country and that 49.5% of the attacks against the press come from public officials.

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