GUATEMALA

After a period of relative calm, the situation has deteriorated. Several cases of intimidation have been reported, including the murder of Eduardo Heriberto Mass Bol and an attack on Vinicio Aguilar. Mass Bol, correspondent of Radio Punto was shot early in the morning on September 10 while driving his car in the Coban area in the northern part of the country. He was an officer of the Journalists’ Association of Alta Verapaz as well as a supervisor in the Education Ministry. Aguilar, director of the program “Hablando se entiende la gente,” was shot while exercising outside on August 23, and miraculously survived. He told an IAPA representative that he did not know the reason for the attack. In both cases, the IAPA demanded that authorities make a quick and thorough investigation. Government Minister Carlos Vielman and Attorney General Juan Luis Florido said they would do so. IAPA also responded to threats to five correspondents outside the capital, four in August in Antigua Guatemala and another in September in Coban. In Antigua Guatemala, Maria Teresa López Lima, correspondent of Prensa Libre, Oscar Enrique Flores Sosa, editor of the newspaper La Voz de Antigua, José Antonio Palomo Carjas and Carlos Roberto Mérida Reynoso, both columnists, said they had been threatened apparently because of their coverage of Mayor César Antonio Siliézer Portillo. The journalists reported irregularities in local government and then publicized the threats they received. López Lima said that retired captain Marvin Estuardo Mena Pons, brother-in-law of the mayor, is investigating her. She found out when the captain’s wife found her and showed her a file with her photograph, personal information and her telephone records. Another correspondent who has been threatened is Angel Martín Tax, of Prensa Libre, who has been receiving anonymous phone calls for months in an effort to intimidate him. He had reported illegal actions of former police officers in the newspaper. On August 11, reporters of the television news program “Guatevisión,” on Channel 13, and the newspaper Siglo Veintiuno, were threatened and held for more than three hours by armed farmers in Senahú, Alta Verapaz in the north, while they were covering a labor dispute over land ownership. The debate continues over the legality of several dozen community radio stations operating outside the capital under the terms of the peace accords which established this type of radio station to guarantee diversity in the national media. It is expected that the Congress will regulate their operations. In the meantime, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has closed several which were operating illegally on certain frequencies. Oscar Rodolfo Castañeda, director of Radio 10, presented evidence of what he called “commercial pressure” to take away the FM frequency he used. However, the owner of the frequency said he had taken it away for breach of contract and failure to pay. Aguilar’s program, “Hablando se entiende la gente,” was transmitted on Radio 10, and Castañeda said it is subject to the same pressures as the radio station. Castañeda said he had received threats over the air the day before the attack on Aguilar. On August 31, the Guatemalan government decreed a ”state of exception” restricting press freedom in a part of San Marcos on the Mexican border where a large anti-drug operation was underway to combat poppy farming. On that day the IAPA asked the government to totally reinstate the right to inform and to be informed and to respect that constitutional guarantee. The government accepted the IAPA’s reasoning and changed the decree 24 hours later, permitting complete press freedom. The most recent case occurred in Quetzaltenango, the country’s second largest city, where David Leiva, director of the news program “Sucesos” on radio station Stereo 100, was attacked by unknown persons as he arrived as work. They hit him and cut his hair. The station’s executives called this an attempt to give it a message. “Sucesos” has a dynamic news format that allows participation by listeners.