Impunity - Paraguay

WHEREAS the President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, on September 25, 2008 received a request from the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) for the prompt solving of the murder of radio commentator Alberto Palma Godoy, committed on August 22, 2007 in Mayo Otaño, Itapúa WHEREAS the IAPA submitted the case of Santiago Leguizamón, a journalist murdered on April 26, 1991, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on January 19, 2007 after verifying that all legal resources in his country had been exhausted, leaving the case in a complete state of impunity after 18 years and considering that his right to life, to have access to justice and to freedom of expression were violated WHEREAS the President of Paraguay, following a request by the IAPA, on February 27 this year, publicly committed to take action for the judiciary to solve the murder of journalist Santiago Leguizamón THE IAPA MIDYEAR MEETING RESOLVES to appeal once again top the President of Paraguay that he seek to speed up the inquiries into the Palma Godoy case, so that the crime be solved and in this way a clear message is sent to respect the integrity of journalists and the free press in his country to insist to the IACHR that, given the lack of guarantees to judicial results in Paraguay in the Santiago Leguizamón case, the IAPA’s submission be admitted with the intention that the necessary steps be taken for the investigations to be resumed to identify those who carried out the murder and the masterminds behind it, that it be investigated whether the government has failed to meet its obligation to impart justice, and that reparations be made to the victim’s family to trust the written words of the President of Paraguay, in response to the appeal by the IAPA in more than 400 newspapers in the Americas, that he has given instructions to the Presidency’s Legal Avisors and to the Colombian Inspector General’s Office that they taken the relevant action and insist to the judiciary that the said crime be solved.