Impunity - Murders and Disappearances

WHEREAS In this period nine journalists and three newsvendors were murdered and another two journalists disappeared WHEREAS driver Mateo Cortés Martínez and vendors Agustín López and Flor Vásquez López of the Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, Mexico, newspaper El Imparcial del Istmo were murdered on October 8, 2007 as they were riding in a pickup truck bearing the newspaper’s logo, an action that, according to the paper’s founder and editor, Benjamín Fernández Pichardo, might have been an act of reprisal by drug traffickers, presumably belonging to the Los Zetas cartel, as the paper had been receiving threats following publication of reports about local organized crime activities WHEREAS Salvador Sánchez, a stringer for Radio Mi Gente, Radio Maya Visión, Radio YSUCA and Radio Sonora radio stations, murdered in September 20, 2007 in Soyapango, El Salvador, had received death threats after exposing criminal activity by street gangs, whose presence and methods of extortion are well known in the area WHEREAS Javier Dario Arroyave, news director of the “Ondas del Valle” radio program and a stringer for El Tiempo newspaper, was murdered on September 4, 2007 in Cartago, Valle del Cauca province, Colombia, in circumstances that remain under investigation WHEREAS Alberto Palma Godoy, correspondent of Radio Chaco Boreal radio station in Mayor Julio D. Otaño city, Paraguay, was murdered on August 22, 2007 and his partner was wounded, he had felt under threat and because of this had decided to go to Chile, where he was born, and his reports on drug trafficking, smuggling and underground radio stations may have brought about his death WHEREAS Chauncey Bailey, publisher of the weekly Oakland Tribune, was murdered on August 2, 2007 in Oakland, California, apparently to stop his investigative work, and students and his colleagues have formed an investigative tam to clear up questions about his death WHEREAS Alix Joseph, director and popular announcer at Radio Provinciale in Gonaives, Haiti, was killed on May 16, 2007, by people who shot him 11 times, and although the motive is not know, it is assumed that it is connected to threats made to the station because of its support for disarming local gangs; a person linked to one of those gangs is in custody WHEREAS Gamaliel López and Gerardo Paredes, reporter and cameraman, respectively, for TV Azteca Monterrey television station in Mexico, went missing on May 10, 2007 and to date their whereabouts and fate remain unknown, and the Mexican and Nuevo León state Attorney General’s Offices have made no progress in their investigations WHEREAS Luiz Carlos Barbon Filho was murdered on May 5, 2007 in Porto Ferreira, São Paulo state, Brazil, and police are investigating to determine whether the crime is related to exposures by him published in the Port Ferreira newspaper Jornal do Porto and broadcast by the local Radio Porto FM radio station. WHEREAS the body of Saúl Martínez Ortega, reporter and co-owner of the publications Interdiario and El Escorpión in Agua Prieta, Sonora state, Mexico, was discovered on April 23, 2007, one week after he had been abducted, and to date the state and federal Attorney General’s Offices have made no progress in their investigations WHEREAS Amado Ramírez, correspondent in Guerrero, Mexico, of the broadcast network Televisa, was murdered on April 23, 2007 as he was leaving the station and to date there has been only one arrest, of Genaro Vázquez Durán, although there are contradictions and doubts about the accused and the motives for why he allegedly committed the crime WHEREAS Miguel Pérez Julia, a reporter for Radio Exitos radio station and a stringer fro Radio Oriental and Radio Jaén, was murdered on March 17, 2007 in Jaén, Cajamarca province, Peru, as he was traveling with his wife and two children to his home in the La Palmas neighborhood when two men on a motorcycle shot him in the head; he was investigating alleged official corruption in the local mayor’s office and a lack of security in the city THE IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES to ask the Mexican government to investigate, clarify and determine the motives for the killing of Mateo Cortés Martínez, Agustín López and Flor Vásquez López, bring those responsible to justice and study the possibility of the case being transferred to federal jurisdiction by the Mexican Attorney General’s Office to urge the El Salvador Attorney General’s Office to investigate all possible motives for the murder of Salvador Sánchez and bring the guilty to justice to ask the Colombian police and Attorney General’s Office to investigate the motives for the murder of journalist Javier Dario Arroyave on September 4 in Cartago, Valle del Cauca, and ensure that there is an investigation that will identify those responsible for the crime and bring them to justice to make an urgent request to Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos to have the murder of Alberto Palma Godoy investigated and the guilty prosecuted to urge U.S. authorities to continue the inquiries into the murder of Chauncey Bailey, and to express support for the investigative team that is looking for information about the crime to ask the Haitian authorities to move forward in the investigation and prosecute those responsible for the killing of Alix Joseph with the full weight of the law to call upon the Nuevo León state General Attorney’s Office, Mexico, to move ahead with the investigations into the disappearance of TV Azteca reporters Gerardo Paredes and Gamaliel López and present results, so as to determine their whereabouts and those responsible, and to ask the Mexican Attorney General’s Office to take up the investigations into this case to ask for greater efforts on the part of police and the justice system in Brazil to quickly and impartially solve the murder of Luiz Carlos Barbon Filho, and if necessary to ensure the safety of his family members to once again urge the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Committed Against Journalists at the Mexican Attorney General’s Office to take up the investigations into the murders of reporters Amado Ramírez in Guerrero and Saúl Martínez Ortega in Sonora, given the lack of credibility and possible complicity of the state authorities to ask the Peruvian authorities to diligently and transparently continue investigating the murder of Miguel Pérez Julca in order to clarify several complaints by the press about irregularities in the conduct of the inquiries and to bring those who committed the murder and those who instigated it to justice.