Miami (April 25, 2011)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today condemned the murder in Bolivia of journalist David Niño de Guzmán last week and called on the authorities of the South American nation to carry out an exhaustive investigation to determine who was responsible and the motive.
The body of Niño Guzmán, news editor of the Fides News Agency (ANF) of the Company of Jesus of Bolivia religious organization, was found last Thursday (April 21) on the banks of the Orkojahuira River in La Paz with signs that he had been killed with an explosive device that tore open his abdomen. The 42-year-old journalist, who also wrote for the newspapers Presencia, Última Hora, La Razón and El Diario, among others, had gone missing on April 19.
IAPA President Gonzalo Marroquín, president of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Siglo 21, expressed concern at the crime and asked the relevant authorities “to urgently look into all possible theories so as identify those responsible,” adding that the organization was adding its call for justice to those made by several Bolivian groups.
For his part, the chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Robert Rivard, editor of the San Antonio Express-News, Texas, declared, “the sooner the results of the official investigation are known and there is a move ahead in applying justice in this murder the less opportunity we are giving to murderers for their crimes to remain unpunished.”
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. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org; http://www.impunidad.com.
