It recalls Leguizamón case it submitted to IACHR in 2007
Miami (May 19, 2014)—The murder of radio reporter Fausto Gabriel Alcaraz in Paraguay was condemned today by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), which urged the authorities to carry out a prompt investigation to determine the motives and those responsible and bring them to justice.
Alcaraz, 28, was host of the program “De frente a la mañana” (Facing the Morning), broadcast from 7:00 a.m. to midday Monday to Friday by radio station Radio Amambay in Pedro Juan Caballero, a city bordering Brazil and the capital of Amambay province.
After winding up his work day on Friday, May 16 he was intercepted by assailants when arriving home. He was shot 12 times, most of the bullets hitting him in the face.
Radio Amambay is owned by Senator Robert Acevedo, who immediately accused a local drug cartel of having ordered the attack, according to the newspaper ABC Color. In his program Alcaraz disclosed the names of businessmen, police officers, public prosecutors and judges allegedly involved in the illicit drug trade and would raise questions about the actions of Amambay Governor Pedro González, a political adversary of the radio station’s owner.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, offered his sympathy to Alcaraz’s family and colleagues. Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, declared, “We urge the authorities to look into the case effectively to solve it and bring justice.”
In this city were also killed Marcelino Vazquez, February 6, 2013, who was the owner and director of the radio station Sin Fronteras 98.5 FM, and Santiago Leguizamón, on April 26, 1991, owner-manager of Radio Mburucuyá and correspondent of the Asunción newspaper Noticias. Leguizamón’s death remains unpunished.
On January 19, 2007 the IAPA submitted the results of a specific investigation into the Leguizamón case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in the quest for justice and for the Paraguayan government to assume “international responsibility.” The case is known as No. P-66-07.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
