MIAMI, Florida (March 29, 2010)–In a new step in its hemisphere-wide campaign to create awareness of the need to solve unpunished murders of journalists the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today called on Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón to act to have the stalled inquiries into the murder of journalist Armando “El Choco” Rodríguez move ahead.
In a letter to the head of the Mexican government, signed by hundreds of newspaper readers throughout the Americas, he is urged to act to see that those responsible for the death of Rodríguez, killed on November 13, 2008 in the northern Mexico city of Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua state, are brought to justice.
Rodríguez was sitting in his car with his eldest daughter outside their home when hired assassins shot him. The crime appears to be linked to reports he published in El Diario de Ciudad Juárez about corruption, violence and the illicit drug trade. Nothing is yet known about the investigation into the incident, nor whether anyone has been arrested or charged.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. The IAPA’s Impunity Project is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and has as its mission to combat violence against journalists and reduce the impunity surrounding the majority of such crimes. For more information, please go to http://www.sipiapa.org / http:www.impunidad.com
