Miami (March 21, 2012)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern at an attack outside the plant of the newspaper Expreso in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas and called for an urgent investigation to determine why it was carried out and who was responsible for it.
Around 8:15 p.m. on Monday March 19, a car bomb exploded a short distance from the paper’s offices in Ciudad Victoria. Five people who were walking nearby at the time were slightly injured and some vehicles were damaged, police reported.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gustavo Mohme, condemned the action and urged the authorities “to investigate right away.”
Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, reiterated a plea by the IAPA for prompt action to put into force the constitutional amendment passed last week which puts under federal jurisdiction cases of crimes against freedom of expression and the right to information. Among other steps to be taken for the amendment to come into effect it must obtain approval by a simple majority of the Mexican states.
It was not immediately known if the explosion was aimed at the newspaper, near to which are located the houses of staff of the National Defense Ministry and a nursery which suffered damage, local media reported.
Tamaulipas, on the border with Texas, is regarded as one of the Mexican states with the highest level of violence unleashed by organized crime.
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. http://www.sipiapa.org; http://www.impunidad.com
