IAPA welcomes creation of new prosecutor’s office

The IAPA welcomed the expected decision by the Mexican government to create a new Special Prosecutor’s Office to Deal With Crimes Committed Against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE in its Spanish-language acronym). FEADLE, which will report directly to Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez, was announced to the IAPA during a visit by an international delegation of the organization in February this year to Interior Minister Fernando Gómez Mont. At the time the IAPA reiterated its criticism of the lack of effective measures to combat violence, the impunity surrounding crimes and the disappearances of journalists taken by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Dealing With Crimes Committed Against Journalists, set up in 2006, and now replaced by the new office created by decree, as published on July 5 in Mexico’s Official Gazette. IAPA President Alejandro Aguirre, editor of the Miami, Florida, Spanish-language newspaper Diario Las Américas, welcomed the announcement, saying it “represents a positive step towards making crimes against journalists federal offenses and, along with other legal and judicial measures that we are requesting, can help put an end to the climate of violence existing in Mexico.” Robert Rivard, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and editor of the San Antonio Express-News, Texas, said, “We look forward with this announcement to a high level of commitment and political will to solve the cases that up to now have built up and are waiting for justice to be done.” FEADLE holds discretionary power to take on cases involving attacks upon journalists from any part of the country, to coordinate with the Office of the Assistant Prosecutor for Specialized Investigation into Organized Crime (SIEDO), and to “request information concerning the banking and financial systems” for its investigations.