Also voices concern at disappearance of Mexican newsman
Miami (April 9, 2010)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today condemned an attack on a Guatemalan journalist and called for immediate steps to identify those responsible. At the same time it voiced great concern at the disappearance of a newsman in Mexico, urging the authorities there to take the measures necessary to locate him.
In Guatemala, Luis Felipe Valenzuela Carrillo, director and program host of radio station Emisoras Unidas and a columnist for the daily newspaper Siglo XXI, was attacked and shot in the head yesterday (Thursday, April 9) evening as he left a religious service in a residential area of the Guatemalan capital. Valenzuela, 47, who hosts the program “Patrullaje informativo” (News Patrol), was shot three times, one hitting him in the head. Operated on this morning, he is reported out of danger and in stable condition.
Although Valenzuela and local authorities are unable to determine the motive for the attack they have not ruled out the possibility that it was in retaliation for Emisoras Unidas’ editorial position. The fact that it might have been a common crime has also not been ruled out since the attackers stole his vehicle, though they then abandoned it near the scene of the attack.
IAPA President Alejandro Aguirre, editor of the Miami, Florida, Spanish-language newspaper Diario Las Américas, declared, “We trust that the relevant authorities will investigate the attack swiftly, will identify the motives and put a stop to any further outbreaks of violence that could harm freedom of the press.”
For his part, IAPA 1st Vice President Gonzalo Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City newspaper Prensa Libre, expressed “sympathy with Valenzuela’s family and other colleagues who are victims of violence,” adding that “we must be fully alert to incidents of this kind that could be aimed at silencing the press.”
In 2008 and 2009 the following journalists were murdered in Guatemala: Marco Antonio Estrada Orla, on June 6, 2009, Rolando Santís, on April 1, 2009, and Jorge Mérida Pérez, on May 10, 2008.
In Mexico, no trace of a journalist missing in Michoacán
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Robert Rivard, editor of the San Antonio Express-News, Texas, voiced concern at the wave of violence that is “plunging the Mexican press into mourning,” with the appearance of a new missing person case. Missing the correspondent for the newspaper Cambio de Michoacán, Ramón Angeles Zalpa, 45, last seen on April 6 around 1:00 p.m. as he was heading to the National Pedagogic University where he is a lecturer. He covers pubic safety topics, politics, and agrarian and environmental issues, local media reported.
Also in Michoacán, the whereabouts of Mari Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, a reporter with El Diario de Zamora, remain unknown since November 10 last year.
So far this year four journalists have been killed in Mexico, 43 since 2005. During the same period, in addition to Angeles Zalpa, 15 journalists have disappeared without trace, among them five kidnapped last month in Tamaulipas.
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 Impunity Project is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and has the mission of combating violence against journalists and lessening the impunity surrounding the majority of such crimes. http://www.sipiapa.org; http://www.impunidad.com
