Impunity - Mexico II

WHEREAS the Coahuila state attorney general’s office has ignored the demand that it investigate the disappearance of Rafael Ortiz Martínez, a reporter for Zócalo newspaper in Coahuila, and that it arrest the culprits, who are apparently being protected by local authorities WHEREAS the cases involving threats and assaults on reporters from the newspaper Por Esto! and the explosions at the facilities of Por Esto! and Quequi in Cancún in 2006 have not been solved, and the Federal Office of the Attorney General and the state attorney general’s office have yet to arrest those responsible for these crimes WHEREAS the October 27, 2006, killing of Bradley Ronald Will is completely shrouded in impunity, as neither the local authorities nor the Federal Office of the Attorney General have prosecuted those responsible for the killing, and the investigation has been plagued by flagrant irregularities WHEREAS the Tabasco state attorney general’s office has not arrested a single person in connection with the January 21, 2007, disappearance of Rodolfo Rincón Taracena and has yet to find the missing journalist WHEREAS the Federal Office of the Attorney General has not demonstrated any progress in investigating the February 2006 attack on El Mañana newspaper in Nuevo Laredo that caused one reporter serious injuries from which he is still recovering WHEREAS the Veracruz state attorney general’s office has shown no progress in any of its investigations into attacks on and killings of journalists in the state, such as the attacks on Saúl Contreras and Rafael Saavedra (December 2006), the killings of Robert Marcos García (November 21, 2006) and Adolfo Sánchez Guzmán (November 29, 2006), and as a result the motives and culprits in these cases are still unknown WHEREAS Despite persistent requests, the Oaxaca state attorney general’s office has not investigated the threats, coercion and attacks directed at newspapers such as Noticias Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca, or at reporters such as Benjamín Fernández González (November 6, 2005), or for that matter the December 8, 2006, killing of El Gráfico columnist Raúl Marcial Pérez 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 strenuously demand that the Coahuila state attorney general’s office investigate and determine the whereabouts of Rafael Ortiz Martínez and those responsible for his disappearance to urge the Federal Office of the Attorney General and the Yucatán and Quintana Roo state attorney general’s offices to investigate and arrest those responsible for the attacks on reporters and journalistic facilities in those two states to demand that the Federal Office of the Attorney General take over the case of the killing of Bradley Ronald Will and prosecute all of those responsible for planning and carrying out the crime to call on the Tabasco state attorney general’s office to demonstrate the interest and the will to solve the disappearance of journalist Rodolfo Rincón Taracena by finding him and capturing the culprits, as his disappearance is related to his investigative reporting work to pressure the Federal Office of the Attorney General to arrest those who planned and carried out the attack on the staff and facilities of the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Mañana to urge the Veracruz state attorney general’s office to ensure that all the cases of threats, pressures, attacks and killings of journalists in that state do not go unpunished, and that it find those responsible for the assault on reporters Saúl Contreras and Rafael Saavedra and for the killings of Roberto Marcos García and Adolfo Sánchez Guzmán to demand that the Oaxaca state attorney general’s office fulfill its responsibility to find those responsible for the threats and assaults on journalists and facilities of the newspaper Noticias Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca; and that it prosecute those responsible for the killing of Raúl Marcial Pérez, and that it publicly announce the circumstances surrounding the crime and the evidence in the case to reiterate the request that the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Journalists of the Federal Office of the Attorney General take over the case of the killing of journalist Raúl Marcial Pérez and the attacks on the newspaper Noticias Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca, in view of the lack of progress in the investigation thus far and the possible complicity of state officials.