Impunity - Colombia

WHEREAS seven journalists have been killed in the last six months and four of them were reporters, owners and/or news directors of community radio stations in regions where the armed conflict is becoming more violent WHEREAS three journalists–José Dubiel Vásquez, Guillermo León Agudelo and Alfredo Abad¬–employees of the same radio station, La Voz de la Selva–in Florencia, Caquetá, were killed in less than a year WHEREAS no hearing in public court has been held for Libardo Prada Bayona, the defendant accused of committing the murder of journalist Amparo Leonor Jiménez on August 11, 1998 WHEREAS former legislator Carlos Alberto Oviedo Alfaro has fled, although he has been mentioned as the possible mastermind in the investigation of the homicides of journalists Jairo Elías Márquez and Ernesto Acero Cadena in the city of Armenia on November 20, 1997, and December 12, 1995, respectively, because there is sufficient evidence against him WHEREAS the crimes against Guzmán Quintero Torres and Hernando Rangel Moreno have still not been solved WHEREAS journalist Iván Darío Cardozo has been denied application of the principle that the law more favorable to the defendant shall apply, when the new criminal and criminal procedure codes went into effect, in his trials for alleged extortion and influence peddling WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states that “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 GENEAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to ask the authorities to order the deployment of investigators to those regions to obtain information to clear up the facts and put together a support network with media outlets, journalists’ organizations and nongovernmental organizations to protect journalists and maintain continuous information to guarantee quick and effective action for journalists to ask the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate and gather all the evidence to solve the murders of three journalists from the radio station La Voz de la Selva in Florencia, Caquetá to ask the judge of the Special Circuit of Valledupar to make a ruling and avoid whenever possible any more delays in the public hearing and ask the General Prosecutor’s Office to continue the investigation to find the masterminds of the murder to ask Colombian intelligence authorities to capture former legislator Carlos Alberto Oviedo Alfaro to serve the sentence of 38 years in prison imposed by the Superior Court of Bogota for the double homicide of Guillermo Acosta, and engineer, and the hit man Fernando Selis, and ask the national General Prosecutor’s Office to link him formally to the investigations of the murders of journalists Jairo Elías Márquez and Ernesto Acero Cadena to ask the national General Prosecutor’s Office to further the necessary investigations to find the masterminds of the murders of journalists Guzmán Quintero Torres and Hernando Rangel Moreno to ask the National Directorate of Prosecutors though its Barranquilla office to solve, in accordance with the law, the judicial situation of journalist Iván Darío Cardozo.