Miami (July 31, 2008)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today called on Mexico’s Tamaulipas State Attorney General to look into irregularities detected in the official investigation into the March 19, 2004 murder of Roberto Javier Mora García, editor-in-chief of the newspaper El Mañana.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, in a note to Tamaulipas Attorney General José Herrera Bustamente, pointed out that Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CHDH) referred to “anomalies in several police reports as well as incompetence and lapses by the specialists who performed the autopsy, reported testimony and gathered evidence.”
The hemisphere free press organization also endorsed the Commission’s call for a review of “irregular behavior by the public officials ” involved in the interrogation of Mario Medina Vasquez, one of two people arrested and accused of the murder, who is said to have been subjected to violence and intimidation shortly before being killed in jail in May 2004. The other detainee is Hiram Oliveros.
Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre, speaking in name of the IAPA, explained that during the IAPA-sponsored Second Meeting of Editors and Publishers of the Mexican Republic held in Mexico City last month, executives from El Mañana had complained of errors in the murder investigation and called for the organization’s support.
The IAPA also sent the Declaration of Mexico and a resolution on cases of crimes against journalists in Mexico to state authorities. Both documents were adopted by 54 editors, publishers and representatives of the print media who took part in the Mexico City meeting.
