Impunity - Guatemala

WHEREAS a friendly agreement was reached on March 2, 2001 between the Guatemalan government and the Inter American Press Association through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the case of the journalist Irma Flaquer who was murdered on October 16, 1980 WHEREAS among other commitments assumed by the Guatemalan government, the judicial process was reopened, and in 2001 the attorney general’s office named Gustavo Adolfo Barreno as special prosecutor in the case WHEREAS although the IAPA since 2001 has made available to the attorney general’s office all the documentation it has gathered about the investigation and repeatedly urged the special prosecutor’s office to try harder to make new inquiries and name the masterminds and the hit men WHEREAS Eduardo Heribrto Mass Bol, correspondent of Radio Punto was murdered on September 10 in Cobán, Alta Verapaz, in northern Guatemala, and Government Miister Carlos Vielman and Attorney General Juan Luis Florido, have promised to undertake a prompt and thorough investigation WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says “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 GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to ask the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to ask the Guatemalan government to show results of the reopening of the case of Irma Flaquer to insist that the Guatemalan authorities investigate the murder of Mass to determine who is responsible and the motives.