[2] As the author of six books, Blancornelas was regarded by the press as a leading expert on organized crime and drug trafficking during his time.

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.

[6] Unlike several other journalists during his time, Blancornelas was eager to write about drug trafficking and corruption, leading to his firing from three newspapers before deciding to create his own.

"[5] Héctor Félix Miranda was assassinated by multiple shotgun blasts in 1988;[11] two guards from the Agua Caliente Racetrack were later convicted of the murder.

[5] In 1994, Zeta published an investigation on the assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio; despite the conspiracy theories about the case, the magazine concluded that the shooting had been the work of a single troubled individual.

I would have liked to retire a long time ago ... [but] I cannot allow drug traffickers to think that they were able to crush Zeta's spirit, and our readers to believe that we are afraid.

[2][20] While previous attacks on journalists received little coverage, Blancornelas' assassination attempt made it to the frontpage of most newspapers in Mexico, and was covered on the television and radio.

[20][22] He left the hospital with a walker and was escorted by municipal, judicial state, and federal policemen, along with soldiers of the Mexican Army, to his home in La Mesa delegation in Tijuana.

[23] Marco Arturo Quiñones Sánchez, whom Mexican authorities alleged to be a hit man for the Tijuana Cartel, was later charged with being one of the gunmen in the attack on Blancornelas, but was found not guilty by a judge in 2013.

[10] He died in the border city of Tijuana on November 23, 2006, in Del Prado Hospital, from complications of stomach cancer, possibly caused by the embedded bullets he received when he was shot.

Editor Adela Navarro Bello and Blancornelas's son, César René Blanco Villalón, however, persuaded him to let the magazine continue and succeeded him as its co-publishers.

[25] He was survived by his wife, Genoveva Villalón de Blanco, and their three sons: José Jesús, Ramón Tomás and César René.

[30] He also won the Maria Moors Cabot Prize of Columbia University and was honored as the International Editor of the Year by the World Press Review in 1998.

[34] El Periodista ("The Journalist"), a corrido (ballad) in memory of Blancornelas, was written by members of the band Los Tucanes de Tijuana.

[1] The character of Ramón Salgado, played by Alex Furth in season three of Narcos: Mexico, is loosely based on Jesús Blancornelas.