Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco (Guanajuato, Guanajuato, 1954 – Tijuana, Baja California, 22 June 2004) was a Mexican journalist.

He was shot five times at the wheel of his car by masked gunmen in a drive-by shooting. The murder took place in full view of his two sons (aged 8 and 10), as he left a midday doctor's appointment.

At the time of his death, he was one of three contributing editors to the Baja Californian newsmagazine Zeta . This weekly publication, which he had helped found in 1980, was known for its investigative ("crusading", according to some accounts) journalism. Of its other founders, Héctor Félix Miranda was murdered in 1988 by an employee of local caudillo (and current PRI mayor) Jorge Hank Rhon, and, in 1997, Jesús Blancornelas was shot at and severely injured in an attack that left his personal bodyguard dead.

External links

• BBC
• AP
• Al Margen (Spanish, with biography)