Impunity / Colombia

WHEREAS during this period two journalists were killed: José Everardo Aguilar, in the municipality of Patía, in Cauca department, on April 24, and Diego Rojas Velásquez, in Suplia in Caldas department on September 22, the latter for reasons that are still being investigated WHEREAS the National Attorney General´s Office, cited José Miguel Narváez, former assistant director of the national security agency (DAS), for questioning about his alleged participation in the killing of journalist Jaime Garzón in Bogota on August 13, 1999, because of statements by former paramilitary leaders who accused him of having ordered the killing of the journalist WHEREAS despite insistent requests by the IAPA, the National Office of Prosecution of the National Attorney : General´s Office has not responded about judicial proceedings in the killings of these 16 journalistsMario Prada Díaz, Denis Sánchez Lora, Gildardo Ariza Olarte, Iván Dario Pelayo, Alfredo Antonio Matiz, Fabio Leonardo Restrepo, John Jairo Restrepo, María Elena Salinas, Marco Antonio Ayala, Juan Carlos Benavides, José Nel Muñoz, Jaime Alberto Madero, Álvaro Alonso Escobar, Hernando Rangel Moreno, Arquímedes Arias Henao and Rodolfo Julio Torres, and these proceedings have been suspended, shelved or dismissed, and that in many of them there have been irregular actions by prosecutors who are responsible for bringing their killers to justice WHEREAS the judicial proceedings in the homicides of 10 journalists are stalled without any type of investigation by the prosecutor´s office for between six and 18 months without knowing the results of the most recent actions, in these cases Gerardo Bedoya, Ernesto Acero Cadena, Alejandro Jaramillo Barbosa, Carlos Lajud Catalán, Francisco Castro Menco, Didier Aristizabal, José Duviel Vásquez, Gustavo Ruiz Cantillo and Guillermo Bravo Vega WHEREAS the National Attorney General´s Office decided to end the investigation of Carlos Augusto Rojas, the former president of the Huila assembly, in the judicial process for the killing of journalist Nelson Carvajal Carvajal in Pitalito, Huila on April 16, 1998, because evidence was found that cast doubt on statements of witnesses who had implicated him in those events WHEREAS National Attorney General Alejandro Ordoñez asked the National Attorney General´s Office to link former legislator Caldas Ferney Tapasco and his son a, former member of the House of Representatives, Dickson Ferney Tapasco, to the investigation as suspects in the homicide of Orlando Sierra in Manizales on January 30, 2002, a request that IAPA had made to the investigative agency WHEREAS Article 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says, “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 Colombian authorities investigate those responsible for the homicides of José Everardo Aguilar and Diego Rojas Velázquez and punish those responsible and take the necessary measures to safeguard life and the free practice of the profession throughout the country to urge the prosecutor´s office to carry out a thorough investigation of the link to José Miguel de Narváez, the former assistant director of the national security agency (DAS), as one of the alleged masterminds of the crime against journalist Jaime Garzón and give priority to the recent statement of demobilized paramilitary combatant Freddy Rendón Herrera, alias The German, who implicated some members of the army as the masterminds of the crime to ask the national prosecutor to have the National Office of Prosecution make a report as soon as possible about the cases of 16 journalists who were killed (Mario Prada Díaz, Denis Sánchez Lora, Gildardo Ariza Olarte, Iván Dario Pelayo, Alfredo Antonio Matiz, Fabio Leonardo Restrepo, John Jairo Restrepo, María Elena Salinas, Marco Antonio Ayala, Juan Carlos Benavides, José Nel Muñoz, Jaime Alberto Madero, Álvaro Alonso Escobar, Hernando Rangel Moreno, Arquímedes Arias Henao and Rodolfo Julio Torres),giving the reasons that the cases were suspended or shelved, and asking the national prosecutor to resume the investigations of these cases to ask the Human Rights Unit of the National Attorney General´s Office to resume the investigations of the killings of journalists Gerardo Bedoya, Ernesto Acero Cadena, Alejandro Jaramillo Barbosa, Carlos Lajud Catalán, Francisco Castro Menco, Didier Aristizabal, José Duviel Vásquez, Gustavo Ruiz Cantillo and Guillermo Bravo Vega to identify and punish those responsible for these homicides to ask the National Attorney General´s Office to investigate and bring charges against those responsible for killing Nelson Carvajal Carvajal to demand that the National Attorney General´s Office respond to the request of National Attorney General Alejandro Ordoñez to link former Calcas legislator Ferney Tapasco and his son, former member of the House of Representatives, Dickson Ferney Tapasco, as those allegedly responsible for the homicide of Orlando Sierra in Manizales on January 30, 2002, to determine if they are responsible.