Miami (October 30, 2013)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has asked the governments of the region to show greater political will, to carry out prompt investigations and rigorously apply justice on the murders of journalists committed since March of this year. It also rejects the act of subjecting 17 crimes committed in Colombia and Mexico against journalists to statutes of limitations.
Within the framework of IAPA’s 69th General Assembly held on October 18-22 in Denver, Colorado, resolutions were adopted on the murders of journalists that occur during the past six months; and on the matter of statutes of limitations in murder cases.
Following are the IAPA resolutions:
Impunity/Murders
WHEREAS during these past six months 14 journalists were murdered – three in Mexico, two in Brazil, two in Colombia, two in Guatemala, two in Haiti and one each in Ecuador, Honduras and Paraguay, respectively
WHEREAS in Mexico three journalists were murdered – Daniel Martínez Bazaldúa, photographer of the social section of Vanguardia in Saltillo, Coahuila, on April 24; Mario Ricardo Chávez Jorge, director of El Ciudadano Online in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, on June 29, and Alberto López Bello, police beat reporter of the newspaper El Imparcial in Oaxaca, Oaxaca, on July 17 – without state public prosecutor’s offices to date having announced any progress in the investigations or saying whether the crimes are linked to the victims’ work as journalists
WHEREAS in Brazil the murder was committed of two journalists with the newspaper Jornal Vale do Aço in Minas Gerais – reporter Rodrigo Neto was killed on March 9 and photographer Walgney Carvalho on April 14. They both covered the police beat and before his murder Neto was investigating para-police groups in the Vale do Aço region
WHEREAS in Colombia the murder occurred of a journalist and an employee of a news media outlet – Édison Alberto Molina, host of the program “Consultor Jurídico” broadcast by Puerto Berrío Stereo radio in Puerto Berrío, Antioquia, on September 11, and José Darío Arenas, news vendor and occasional stringer of the newspaper Extra in Quindío, Caicedona, Valle del Cauca, on September 28
WHEREAS in Guatemala two journalists were murdered ¬– Carlos Orellana Chávez, host of the program “De la radio a la television” broadcast by Óptimo 3 channel in San Bernadino, Suchitepéquez, on August 19, and Luis de Jesús Lima, announcer on radio La Sultana and director of the radio magazine Somos Zacapa, in Zacapa on August 6
WHEREAS in Haiti two journalists were murdered – Pierre-Richard Alexandre, correspondent of Radio Kiskeya in Saint Marc, Artibonite, on May 17, and Georges Honorat, editor of the newspaper Haiti Progrès, secretary general of the National Popular Party and advisor to the Prime Minister, in Port-au-Prince on March 23
WHEREAS in Ecuador the murder was committed of journalist Fausto Valdiviezo in Guayaquil on April 11
WHEREAS in Honduras the murder was committed of Aníbal Barrow, host of the program “Aníbal Barrow y nada más” on Globo TV, in San Pedro Sula on June 14
WHEREAS in Paraguay the murder occurred of Carlos Artaza, photographer with the Amambay Government Ministry, in Pedro Juan Caballero on April 24
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 GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES
To condemn the murders of journalists and employees of media committed in recent months in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Ecuador, Honduras and Paraguay and demand of the corresponding authorities greater political will, prompt investigations and rigorous administration of justice to prevent the violence being maintained as an instrument to silence and control freedom of the press
To demand that in Mexico the offices of Attorney Generals in Coahuila, Tamaulipas and Oaxaca give transparency to the investigations into the murders of reporters Daniel Martínez Bazldúa, Mario Ricardo Chávez Jorge and Alberto López Bello, respectively, to demonstrate with evidence if the cases are linked to the victims’ work as journalists and bring the guilty to justice, and to urge the Mexican authorities to urgently put into practice all the legal instruments that they have to identify and punish those responsible
To ask the authorities of Brazil to speed up the investigations in order to solve the murders of Rodrigo Neto and Walgney Carvalho, to require that protective measures be put in place for the full exercise of freedom of the press, and to urge that special attention be given to bills to amend the Constitution that foresee making crimes committed against journalists while they are doing their work federal offenses
To require of the authorities in Colombia a prompt investigation into the murders of Édison Alberto Molina and José Darío Arenas, and to request activation of the protective measures needed to safeguard the physical integrity of reporters, stringers and news sources
To reiterate to the authorities of Guatemala that they should act promptly and appropriately to solve the murders of Carlos Orellana Chávez and Luis de Jesús Lima and request action by the special prosecutor’s office that deals with crimes against journalists in order to learn the motives and determine responsibilities for these and other unpunished crimes
To ask the authorities of Haiti to investigate promptly and in-depth the murders of Pierre-Richard Alexandre and Georges Homorat so as to determine the circumstances surrounding the crimes and identify and punish those responsible
To urge the authorities in Ecuador to investigate in-depth in order to determine the motive for the murder of Fausto Valdiviezo and identify and punish the perpetrators and masterminds
To reiterate to the authorities of Honduras the urgent need to carry out an in-depth investigation to solve the murder of Aníbal Barrow, especially to determine who was the mastermind, and to insist on the need to create a system of protection of journalists, among other measures of reforms of public policies that the country should adopt to punish those guilty of crimes against freedom of the press
To urge the authorities of Paraguay to investigate promptly and rigorously the murder of Carlos Artaza so as to determine the motive for the crime, identify those responsible and bring them to justice.
Impunity/Statues of Limitations
WHEREAS impunity is the main incentive of those who resort to violence and statutes of limitations in legal actions in cases of the murder of journalists have serious consequences for freedom of the press
WHEREAS during 2013 and before it ends five cases will have become subject to statutes of limitations in Colombia and 12 in Mexico
WHEREAS in Colombia already subject to statutes of limitations this year have been the cases of Gerardo Didier Gómez, Carlos Lajud Catalán, Nelson de la Rosa Toscano and Manuel José Martínez Espinosa, murdered in 1993, due to the fact that there cannot be applied retroactively a 2010 law that had extended the period of statues of limitations to 30 years
WHEREAS on March 11 the Colombian Office of the Attorney General declared the killing of Eustorgio Colmenares Baptista to be a “crime against humanity” one day before the 20-year anniversary of the killing, when the statute of limitations was set to expire; the Office of the Attorney General said, “There is sufficient evidence that Colmenares was killed as a result of a systematic pattern against the civilian population in the region,” thereby declaring the criminal case to be exempt from any term of limitations.
WHEREAS the case of Colombian journalist Danilo Alfonso Baquero will be subject to a statute of limitations on December 26, the date on which the 20th anniversary of his murder will be commemorated
WHEREAS in Mexico it was allowed to make subject to statutes of limitations the cases of Jesús Michel Jacobo and Manuel Burgueño Orduño in Sinaloa state, Felipe González Hernández in Mexico state, Ezequiel Huerta Acosta in Coahuila, Alberto Ruvalcaba Torres in Jalisco, Lázaro Cárdenas in Michoacán, Jessica Elizalde de León in Chihuahua, and Alejandro Campos Moreno in Morelos
WHEREAS there exists the risk that shortly in Mexico there will become subject to statutes of limitations the cases of the murders of Enrique Peralta Torres and José Luis Rojas in Morelos state, Abel Bueno León in Guerrero, and Philip True in Jalisco
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 GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES
To demand that the judiciary in Colombia and Mexico comply with their obligation to investigate and punish those responsible in a reasonable time and respect the right of the victims’ families to learn the truth of the matters
To urge of the Colombian Attorney General’s Office a response in the face of cases of murders of journalists becoming subject to statutes of limitations, calling on them to adopt measures to prevent those criminal proceedings from expiring
To urge in Mexico the Attorney General’s Offices in Sinaloa, Mexico State, Coahuila, Jalisco, Michoacán, Chihuahua and Morelos to review the case files to prevent these cases becoming subject to statutes of limitations
To encourage the Colombian Office of the Attorney General to review other homicide cases for which the statute of limitations will soon expire, and that it declare these cases to involve “crimes against humanity” so that they may be exempted from the statute of limitations
To call upon the authorities of Guerrero and Jalisco states to prevent the case files being archived, at the same time to investigate internally whether there was a fraudulent omission that has caused these cases to remain in total impunity
To denounce the absence of justice in these cases and have recourse to international agencies and courts with the aim that the crimes against journalist snot be forgotten or go unpunished.
