Impunity - Mexico I

WHEREAS persistent requests have been issued to the Sonora state attorney general’s office for it to pursue its investigation into the 1997 murder of Benjamín Flores González, as the perpetrator has yet to be apprehended and three arrest warrants have yet to be served; in addition, alleged mastermind Gabriel González Gutiérrez may be acquitted in the trial currently in process, as some of the evidence against him is weak WHEREAS the confessed murderers of Philip True, a correspondent for The San Antonio Express-News, have been free for five years because the Jalisco state attorney general’s office has failed to serve the arrest warrants against them WHEREAS the 2000 killing of radio journalist José Ramírez Puente in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, remains unsolved, and the Federal Office of the Attorney General has classified the case file as “confidential” WHEREAS six years after the 2001 murder of the José Luis Ortega Mata, editor of the Ojinaga weekly newspaper Semanario, no one has been arrested and the Chihuahua state attorney general’s office has shown no interest in pursuing the investigation WHEREAS the Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office considers the investigation into the 2004 killing of Roberto Javier Mora García, editor of El Mañana de Nuevo Laredo, to be closed, and the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Journalists of the Federal Office of the Attorney General has not responded to the request that it review the case in view of its many inconsistencies WHEREAS three years after the disappearance of columnist and editor Leodegario Aguilera Lucas, the investigation by the Guerrero state attorney general’s office has yielded no results WHEREAS thirty-three months after the murder of Francisco Ortiz Franco, managing editor of the Baja California weekly Zeta, no one directly involved in the murder has been arrested, and Arturo Villarreal Heredia, aka “El Nalgón,” who has been identified as one of the culprits and was captured last year by U.S. authorities, has not even been extradited WHEREAS the investigation into the 2004 killing of columnist Francisco Arratia Saldierna has made no progress, and neither the Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office nor the Federal Office of the Attorney General show any interest in making progress in the case WHEREAS a judge’s ruling is still pending in the cases of seven defendants charged with planning or carrying out the murder of Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández, news photographer for El Debate de Mazatlán, and some of the defendants may be acquitted due to a lack of evidence; in addition, the person who has been identified as the main culprit has yet to be prosecuted, because the Sinaloa state attorney general’s office has not filed the charges with the court WHEREAS nearly two years after the April 2005 disappearance of Alfredo Jiménez Mota, a reporter for the Sonora newspaper El Imparcial, the Federal Office of the Attorney General has assigned three prosecutors to the case, but none of them has made any progress in finding the reporter, much less in tracking down those who planned and carried out the crime WHEREAS Jesús Francisco Ayala Valenzuela, a former lieutenant in the Navojoa Municipal Police Department, claimed in recently released statements that the disappearance of reporter Alfredo Jiménez is linked to a political group headed by Ricardo Bours Castelo, whose brother is the governor of Sonora, and that Roberto Tapia Chan, the former chief of the Judicial Police in Sonora, acted as an accomplice; it is not known whether the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime has followed up on this, because no official has made any statement in this regard WHEREAS the Federal Office of the Attorney General has made absolutely no progress after 23 months of investigating the killing of Guadalupe García Escamilla, a radio reporter in Tamaulipas WHEREAS the Federal Office of the Attorney General has made no progress in investigating the April 2005 killing of Raúl Gibb Guerrero, editor of La Opinión in Poza Rica, Veracruz, and all of the culprits are at large WHEREAS the Oaxaca state attorney general’s office has yet to pursue the investigation into the 2005 attack on journalist Benjamín Fernández González WHEREAS the investigation into the 2006 killing of photographer Jaime Arturo Olvera Bravo remains at a standstill, and the Michoacán state attorney general’s office is trying to evade its responsibility by claiming that he was no longer working for any news media outlet WHEREAS Article 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states, “Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, pressure, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators. Such acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly" THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to demand that the Sonora state attorney general’s office reopen the investigation into the murder of journalist Benjamín Flores González so that it may identify the mastermind, serve the three pending arrest warrants, and secure the conviction of the alleged mastermind; also, to insist that the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Journalists of the Federal Office of the Attorney General review and take over the case to urge the Jalisco state attorney general’s office and the Federal Office of the Attorney General to arrest the two killers of journalist Philip True to demand that the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Journalists of the Federal Office of the Attorney General reopen the investigation into the killing of José Ramírez Puente so that it may arrest those who planned and carried out the killing to encourage that the Chihuahua state attorney general’s office to solve the killing of journalist José Luis Ortega Mata and prosecute all of those involved; and to request once again that the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Journalists of the Federal Office of the Attorney General take over the case to urge the Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office to review and pursue the investigation into the killing of journalist Roberto Javier Mora García; and to demand that the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Journalists of the Federal Office of the Attorney General take over the case, as there is a lack of confidence in the state authorities and the murder may have been ordered by organized crime groups in the region to press the Guerrero state attorney general’s office to solve the disappearance of columnist Leodegario Aguilera Lucas and apprehend the culprits to demand that the Federal Office of the Attorney General solve the killing of journalist Francisco Ortiz Franco, prosecute those who planned and carried out the crime, and press for the extradition of Arturo Villarreal Heredia, aka “El Nalgón,” so that he may be prosecuted to strongly insist for a second time that the Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office turn over the complete case file for the murder of Francisco Arratia Saldierna, relinquish its jurisdiction over the investigation, and request that the Federal Office of the Attorney General fully take over the case in view of the lack of progress, the lack of confidence in state authorities, and indications that the murder may be the work of organized crime to ask the Sinaloa state attorney general’s office to pursue its investigation into the murder of news photographer Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández, in order to secure an arrest warrant against the leading suspect in the case and gather all evidence needed to ensure that the culprits are not acquitted; also, to urge the judge in the case to weigh all evidence and hand down a fair, exemplary verdict to demand that the Federal Office of the Attorney General solve the disappearance of reporter Alfredo Jiménez Mota, prosecute all of those involved, and report on the results of the investigation as soon as possible to urge once again that the Federal Office of the Attorney General apprehend all of those involved in the killing of reporter Guadalupe García Escamilla and release a report explaining the circumstances surrounding the killing, as there are contradictory accounts of what happened to urge that the Federal Office of the Attorney General solve the killing of La Opinión editor Raúl Gibb Guerrero, prosecute those involved in the murder and publicly report on the circumstances surrounding the murder, as there are many unanswered questions to demand that the Federal Office of the Attorney General arrest those involved in the killing of Raúl Gibb Guerrero, editor of the Poza Rica newspaper La Opinión, and that it provide a clear account of the motives behind the murder to request once again that the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Journalists of the Federal Office of the Attorney General take over the investigation into the attack on journalist Benjamín Fernández González, as there is an utter lack of confidence in state authorities due to the lack of progress in the case to demand that the Michoacán state attorney general’s office investigate the murder of photographer Jaime Arturo Olvera Bravo, prosecute those involved, and report on the motives behind the murder; and to insist that the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Journalists of the Federal Office of the Attorney General review the case, that it take over the case if warranted, and that it publicly report on its conclusions.