Impunity - Mexico I

WHEREAS that in 2006, threats, pressures on and harassment of Mexican journalists have spread and increased, mainly in those states in which organized crime has established its principal operations: Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja California. Chihuahua, Coahuila, Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca y Veracruz; and that there exist cases of reporters and editors who prefer not to make public accusations out of fear WHEREAS that in general the state of Tamaulipas has been accumulating the greatest number of threats against journalists, and that none of the crimes committed between 2004 and 2005 have been resolved WHEREAS that on the night of February 6, two hooded men, carrying heavy firearms, entered the newsroom of El Mañana of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and shot off several rounds of gunfire, resulting in serious injury to reporter Jaime Orozco Tey, who remains hospitalized, and despite the fact that Mexican Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca asserted days later that he had identified the authors of the attack, until now no one has been arrested or named publicly as responsible for the crime WHEREAS that these attacks throughout the country have been carried out by members of organized crime and municipal, state, and federal authorities, who use written messages, verbal threats, firearms, burning of automobiles, deprivation of liberty for hours at a time, beatings and even torture against journalists WHEREAS that the levels of impunity regarding attacks on journalists are very high, and that authorities have not managed to catch those responsible and obtain definitive jail sentences in any of the crimes against journalists in the past 20 years WHEREAS that the Mexican authorities have expressed their concern and interest in carrying out legal reforms that would facilitate the pursuit of those responsible for attacks against journalists, but that these measures continue to be held up in the national congress without being analyzed or discussed WHEREAS that in February 16, the Mexican government created the Special Prosecutor´s Office in Charge of Crimes Against Journalists, and that six days later, on February 22, Dr. David Manuel Vega Vera was named director of the office, but that he will not be responsible for the investigation of attacks on journalists involving organized crime WHEREAS that Article 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes: “Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, 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 elevate its demand to the Mexican State (the three branches of government) to fulfill its obligation to guarantee free exercise of journalism, as a fundamental right consecrated in the Political Constitution of Mexico and in the international agreements that Mexico has ratified to demand that federal and state authorities investigate in depth and provide concrete results about the threats, intimidation, harassments, attacks and murders of journalists to demand immediate and efficient attention and resolution to the what is happening in the state of Tamaulipas, where it is imperative that security measures be strengthened so that journalists are not subjected to threats and attacks by drug-traffickers to exhort the Mexican Attorney General´s office to arrest and bring to justice those responsible, both material and intellectual authors, for the attack on the newspaper El Mañana in Nuevo Laredo to appeal to the federal executive and legislative branches to fulfill the offers made to the IAPA to modify legislation, to promote the necessary consensus to reform the Federal Criminal Code and the Federal Criminal Procedures and other laws so that crimes committed against journalists, when these are provoked by the exercise of their , are investigated by the Mexican Attorney General´s office, and that these investigations shall not be prescribed and have aggravating circumstances to ask the Mexican government to grant the necessary economic, human and technical resources to the new Special Prosecutor in Charge of Crimes Against Journalists, so that he can develop his work in an efficient, expeditious and energetic manner to ask the Mexican government to grant legal faculties to the Special Prosecutor in Charge of Crimes Against Journalists to investigate attacks on journalists in which members of organized crime are involved to ask the federal and state governments to report in a transparent, timely and permanent manner about their advances in investigations of crimes against journalists.