Impunity - Mexico I

WHEREAS the Sonora state attorney general’s office has been urged to arrest the three alleged accomplices in the July 15, 1997, murder of journalist Benjamín Flores González and to reopen the investigation into the whereabouts of the perpetrator WHEREAS the Jalisco state attorney general’s office has ignored repeated demands that it re-arrest the confessed killers of journalist Philip True, a correspondent for the San Antonio Express-News who was killed on December 15, 1998 WHEREAS the Federal Office of the Attorney General has set aside the investigation into the April 29, 2000, killing of radio journalist José Ramírez Puente in Chihuahua and has shown no progress in the investigation into the killings of journalists Guadalupe García Escamilla (Tamaulipas, April 16, 2005), Enrique Perea Quintanilla (August 9, 2006) and Raúl Gibb Guerrero, editor of La Opinión newspaper in Poza Rica (Veracruz, April 8, 2005) WHEREAS despite repeated requests that the Chihuahua state attorney general’s office investigate the killing of José Luis Ortega Mata (February 19, 2001), editor of Semanario in Ojinaga, nothing has been done, and none of the state officials involved in the armed assault on Ciudad Juárez reporters Eugenia Cícero Rivera, Aurelio Suárez Nuñez and Jaime Murrieta have been prosecuted WHEREAS neither the Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office nor the Federal Office of the Attorney General have met the demand that it solve the killings of Roberto Javier Mora García (March 19, 2004); Francisco Arratia Saldierna (August 31, 2004), and radio personality Ramiro Téllez Contreras (March 10, 2006) WHEREAS the Guerrero state attorney general’s office has not done any work in the case of the May 22, 2004, disappearance of columnist and editor Leodegario Aguilera Lucas and intends to set aside the case; nor has it shown any interest in pursuing the investigation into the November 10, 2006, killing of Misael Tamayo Hernández, editor of El Despertar de la Costa in Zihuatanejo WHEREAS no one has been prosecuted for the June 22, 2004, killing of Francisco Ortiz Franco, assistant editor of the weekly Zeta, the authorities have shown no apparent interest in solving the case, and members of the Tijuana cartel recently confessed in the United States to involvement in various killings WHEREAS both defendants charged with firing shots on November 28, 2004, at Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández, a photographer for El Debate newspaper in Mazatlán, were acquitted because of false evidence, and Antonio Frausto Ocampo, the alleged mastermind behind the killing and a reputed drug trafficker in the region, has not been prosecuted WHEREAS the Federal Office of the Attorney General shows no interest in solving the April 2, 2005, disappearance of Alfredo Jiménez Mota of El Imparcial in Sonora, as it has not arrested any suspects in the case nor has it found the missing journalist WHEREAS despite repeated requests that the Michoacán state attorney general’s office thoroughly investigate the 2006 killing of photographer Jaime Arturo Olvera Bravo, it has yet to do so; nor has it shown any interest in finding those responsible for the November 20, 2006, disappearance of journalist José Antonio García Apac 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 GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to demand that the Sonora state attorney general’s office demonstrate interest and reopen the case of journalist Benjamín Flores González, so that the perpetrators may be arrested and the mastermind behind the killing may be punished harshly to demand that the Jalisco state attorney general’s office put an end to the impunity surrounding the case of journalist Philip True and that it re-arrest his killers to demand that the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Journalists in the Federal Office of the Attorney General reopen the investigation into the killing of journalist José Ramírez Puente and capture all of those who are responsible for the crime to demand that the Federal Office of the Attorney General demonstrate interest and prosecute those responsible for the killings of journalists Guadalupe García Escamilla, Enrique Perea Quintanilla and Raúl Gibb Guerrero to urge the Chihuahua state attorney general’s office to investigate and solve the killing of journalist José Luis Ortega Mata and prosecute all officials involved in the attack on three reporters from Ciudad Juárez, so severe sentences may be handed down to help deter such incidents in the future to again urge the Special Prosecutor’s Office in the Federal Office of the Attorney General to review the case files in the killings of journalists Roberto Javier Mora García, Francisco Arratia Saldierna and Ramiro Téllez Contreras, and that it take over these cases; and to demand that the Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office present clear and convincing progress in the case to again demand that the Guerrero state attorney general’s office solve the case of columnist Leodegario Aguilera Lucas and the killing of journalist Misael Tamayo Hernández, that it prosecute all of those involved and make a public announcement about the case, so that no doubts remain regarding the facts in the case to demand that the Federal Office of the Attorney General ensure that the killing of Francisco Ortiz Franco does not go unpunished, that it prosecute those responsible, and that it ask the United States to turn over the confessions of Francisco Javier Arellano Félix and Arturo Villarreal Heredia, alias “El Nalgón,” as evidence in the case to request that the Sinaloa state attorney general’s office arrest the true perpetrators in the killing of photographer Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández and that it secure an arrest warrant for the primary mastermind to call on the Federal Office of the Attorney General to promptly prosecute all of those involved in the disappearance of reporter Alfredo Jiménez Mota and to announce what happened to him to ask the Michoacán state attorney general’s office to arrest all of those responsible for the killing of photographer Jaime Arturo Olvera Bravo and the disappearance of journalist José Antonio García Apac, and that it report on the circumstances surrounding the case; and to repeat the request to the Special Prosecutor’s Office of the Federal Office of the Attorney General to take over the case.