IMPUNITY/MEXICO II

WHEREAS On November 10, 2009 María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, an experienced reporter on security topics for El Diario de Zamora in Michoacán state, was kidnapped with to date the state’s Attorney General’s Office having shown no interest in solving this case WHEREAS on November 24, 2009 the body was found in his home of José Emilio Galindo, director of Radio Universidad de Guadalajara in Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco state, which showed signs of violence and while the motive for the crime is not clear the authorities have not reported any progress in the case WHEREAS on December 22, 2009 José Alberto Velázquez, founder and editor of the newspaper Expresiones de Tulúm in Cancún, Quintana Roo state, died due to lack of medical attention after being shot, and before dying he said the mastermind of the attack on him was the chairman of the local municipal council, who to date has not been called in to give a statement nor have the inquiries shown any progress WHEREAS on December 30 radio reporter José Luis Romero was abducted in Los Mochis, Sinaloa state, and 17 days later he turned up dead, with signs of his having been tortured, killed and then his body buried, with the state Public Prosecutor’s Office not reporting any progress in its investigation into the crime, so the motive remains unknown WHEREAS on January 8 Valentín Valdés Espinosa, a reporter with the newspaper Zócalo de Saltillo specializing in coverage of security and justice topics, as well as politics, was abducted and shortly afterwards killed, in a case in which there is information clearly linking his murder to his work as a journalist. WHEREAS on January 12 Iván Moreno, son of the owner of a radio station in Chihuahua, was murdered, with the authorities showing no results so there is no clear information if his death was linked to his work as a journalist for XELP radio station WHEREAS on January 29 Jorge Ochoa Martínez, editor of El Sol de la Costa, was murdered in Guerrero, the investigations being conducted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the state Attorney General’s Office and two suspects have been detained, with the motive for the crime not known as yet WHEREAS on March 12 Evaristo Pacheco Solís, reporter with the weekly Visión Informativa in Chilpancingo, Guerrero state, was shot five times and killed, it not being yet known what was the motive WHEREAS on October 9 historian and journalist Enrique Rodríguez Solano was abducted in the morning as he was heading for work in Durango, information available to date showing that this case could be linked to the report he did on one of the drug cartels operating in that city, so far his whereabouts remaining unknown and the authorities are showing no progress WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states: “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 MIDYEAR MEETING RESOLVES to urge the Michoacán state Attorney General’s Office to promptly locate and bring to justice those responsible for the disappearance of journalist María Esther Cansimbe, and abandon its indolent attitude that is only contributing to an increase in impunity in not solving the other nine cases of journalists made to disappear or murdered in the last 19 years there – Lázaro Cárdenas (1991), Ramiro Duarte (1999), Jaime Arturo Olvera Bravo and José Antonio García Apac (2006); Juan Pablo Solís and Gerardo García Pimentel (2007), Mauricio Estrada Zamora and Miguel Ángel Villagomez (2008), and Martín Miranda Avilés (2009) to call upon the Jalisco state Attorney General’s Office to conduct an in-depth investigation and report in due course the results of the inquiries into the murder of José Emilio González Galindo, in order to make clear what was the motive for the crime, and in addition solve the murders of journalists Alberto Ruval Caba Torres (1989), Margarito Morales Ramírez (1997), José Reyes Brambilla (2005) and Philip True (1998), regarding which there is only a lack of political will to comply with the order for the re-arrest of the two confessed killers to demand that the Quintana Roo state Attorney General’s Office solve clearly and fully the murder of journalist José Alberto Velázquez so that all those responsible, even if officials, and even those that failed to give timely medical attention, be brought to justice, the motive for the crime be ascertained and that it not remain unpunished to demand that the Sinaloa state Attorney General’s Office without further delay solve the murder of radio reporter José Luis Romero, so that impunity does not become a factor of uncertainty and fear among the rest of the journalists, in addition that the results of the inquiries be made known so as to become aware of the motive for the crime, and also to remember that justice has still not been done in the cases under its responsibility of columnists Jesús Michel Jacobo (1987) and Manuel Burgueño Orduño (1988) to urge that without delay the Coahuila state Attorney General’s Office bring to justice those responsible for the murder of journalist Valentín Valdés Espinosa, for its being a clear and serious attack upon freedom of expression that has aroused fear among the rest of the journalists and consequently self-censorship, and that there not be allowed to continue existing the impunity in the remainder of the cases of attacks on journalists committed there – Ezequiel Huerta Acosta (1989), Cuauhtémoc Ornelas Ocampo (1995), José Valdés and Rafael Ortiz Martínez (2006) to call upon the Chihuahua state Attorney General’s Office to shed light on the murder of Iván Moreno, son of local radio station owner, and report on the motive for the murder, in addition to comply with the resolution issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights which requires it – and this has been committed to – to investigate in-depth the murder of columnist Víctor Manuel Oropeza, to bring to justice all those responsible, including those officials who did not comply with their obligation to investigate at the time, and pay reparations to the family, in addition to solve the rest of the cases on which there has been an act of omission – Jessica Elizalde de León (1993), Fernando Martínez Ochoa (1998), José Ramírez Puente (2000), José Luis Ortega Mata and José Barbosa Bejarano (2001), Enrique Perea Quintanilla (2006), Armando Rodríguez (2008), and Ernesto Montañés Valdivia and Norberto Miranda Madrid (2009) to demand that the Guerrero state Attorney General’s Office without further delay solve all the cases that are under its jurisdiction and in which there has been no will nor interest in solving fully, there remaining doubts in several of them that now amount to 10 cases, in which the motives are unknown, including the last two, on which the results should be reported so as not to leave any doubt about them, and they are: Abel Bueno León (1997), Pedro Valle Hernández (1998), Leodegario Aguilera Lucas (2004), Misael Tamayo Hernández (2006), Amado Ramírez Dillanes (2007); Jean Paul Ibarra, Juan Carlos Hernández Mundo and Juan Daniel Martínez Gil (2009), and Jorge Ochoa Martínez and Evaristo Pacheco Solís to call upon the Durango state Attorney General’s Office to investigate and solve convincingly the disappearance of historian and journalist Enrique Rodríguez Solano and to determine his whereabouts and what happened to him, because apparently it has been a serious attack on freedom of expression and the people’s right to be informed, the masterminds and perpetrators being members of organized crime.