WHEREAS, since the Midyear Meeting in April 2025, two journalists have been murdered for reasons apparently related to their professional work—one in Honduras and one in Peru—and a reporter has gone missing in Guatemala
WHEREAS, since the Midyear Meeting in April 2025, two journalists have been murdered for reasons apparently related to their professional work—one in Honduras and one in Peru—and a reporter has gone missing in Guatemala
WHEREAS in Honduras, Javier Hércules Salinas, journalist for the channel A Todo Noticias (ATN), was murdered on June 1, 2025, in Santa Rosa de Copán, Copán department, despite having had protection measures from the National Protection System since 2023
WHEREAS in Peru, Raúl Celis López, journalist for Radio Karibeña in Iquitos, host of the program Hora Zero, was murdered on May 7, 2025, in Iquitos, Loreto department
WHEREAS in Guatemala, since February 7, 2025, the whereabouts of journalist Milton Polanco, of Noticias RDS, Radio La Peligrosa, remain unknown
WHEREAS in Peru, on August 13, the Amnesty Law was enacted for members of the military, police, and self-defense committees accused of serious crimes against human rights committed between 1980 and 2000, which could favor the murderers of journalists Hugo Bustíos, Jaime Ayala, Melissa Alfaro, and Pedro Yauri, among other victims
WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that “freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators” and that “such acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly.”
THE 81st GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES
To condemn the murders of Javier Hércules Salinas in Honduras and Raúl Celis López in Peru
To urge the governments of Honduras and Peru to fulfill their responsibility to identify the material and intellectual perpetrators of the murders, clarify the motives behind the crimes, and apply the corresponding sanctions, so that these acts do not go unpunished
To call on the government of Guatemala to allocate the necessary resources to locate journalist Milton Polanco
To state that the Amnesty Law enacted in Peru violates international standards and represents a setback in the pursuit of justice for human rights violations.
