Impunity Colombia

WHEREAS the Colombian Attorney General’s Office took decisions aimed at solving the murder of journalist Nelson Carvajal Carvajal, killed in Pitalito, Huila province, among them ordering the arrest of the speaker of the Huila Assembly of Deputies, Carlos Augusto Rojas Ortiz, as one of the alleged masterminds of the murder of the journalist and in the same decision asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office to petition the Supreme Court to review the legal proceedings that ended in the acquittal of those who were held to be allegedly responsible for the homicide WHEREAS in the Justice and Peace Unit of the Colombian Attorney General’s Office voluntary testimony is being taken of demobilized paramilitaries and guerrillas and the Human Rights Unit has requested that evidence and documents be gathered in the cases of the murders, among many others, of José Arturo Guapacha, Didier Aristizabal and Jaime Garzón WHEREAS various statements were received and evidence gathered in the legal proceedings in the murders of Amparo Leonor Jiménez, Carlos José Restrepo Rocha, Pablo Enrique Medina, Jaime Rengifo Revero, José Duviel Vásquez, Orlando Sierra and Gustavo Ruiz Cantillo WHEREAS Article 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states that “Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, 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 IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES to praise the work of the Colombian Attorney General’s Office and request the Public Prosecutor’s Office to continue legal process in the Nelson Carvajal Carvajal case and request the Public Prosecutor’s Office promptly to petition the Supreme Court to review the legal proceedings that ended with the acquittal of those who were held to be allegedly responsible for the homicide, and the Supreme Court to respond favorably to this request to ask the district attorneys in the Justice and Peace Unit of the Attorney General’s Office to remit the versions of the various paramilitaries and guerrillas with the objective of complementing the legal proceedings that the ordinary jurisdiction is undertaking in the cases of murdered journalists and thus bring about punishment of those responsible for these homicides to ask the district attorneys of the Human Rights Unit of the Attorney General’s Office to determine the evidentiary value of the material gathered in the last six months in the cases of journalists Amparo Leonor Jiménez, Carlos José Restrepo Rocha, , Pablo Enrique Medina, Jaime Rengifo Revero, José Duviel Vásquez, Orlando Sierra and Gustavo Ruiz Cantillo to ask U.S. judicial officials who are prosecuting former paramilitary leaders in that country to provide Colombian judges with information they have found concerning the killing of journalists.