IMPUNITY/MURDERS AND DISAPPEARANCES

WHEREAS since April 2014, 11 journalists in the Americas have been murdered, cases in which there are indications that they might have been related to the work of the press, these being three in Honduras, three in Paraguay, two in Mexico and one each in Colombia, El Salvador and Peru WHEREAS Nery Francisco Soto Torres, a host and reporter with Canal 23 television and co-producer of a program on Radio Full in Olanchito, Yoro province, in Honduras, was murdered on August 14 WHEREAS Herlyn Espinal, reporter with Televicentro and Noticiero Hoy Mismo in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, had disappeared and his body was found on July 20 WHEREAS Carlos Hilario Mejía Orellana, who worked in the advertising sales department of Radio Progreso, the radio station of the Company of Jesus in El Progreso, Yoro province, Honduras, was murdered on April 11; since 2009 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had provided protection to Mejía Orellana and other threatened emoloyees of the radio station WHEREAS Pablo Medina, correspondent of ABC Color in Curuguaty, Canindeyú province, Paraguay, was murdered on October 16 while he was investigating matters concerning drug trafficking in that part of the country WHEREAS Édgar Fernández, a journalist with Radio Belén Comunicaciones in the city of Concepción, Concepción province, Paraguay, was murdered on June 19; he had received threats for denouncing on his program wrongdoing in matters related to the judicial branch of government and the Attorney General’s WHEREAS Fausto Gabriel Alcaraz, who hosted the program “De frente a la mañana” (In The Morning) on Radio Amambay in the city of Pedro Juan Caballero, Amambay, Paraguay, was murdered on May 16; he had denounced and named on his program drug traffickers operating in that area on the border with Brazil, and the alleged complicity of police, prosecutors, judges and businessmen with organized crime WHEREAS María del Rosario Fuentes Rubio, stringer for the denunciation of violence Web site Valor por Tamaulipas and online activist in the city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, was kidnapped on October 16 and is presumed to have been murdered by members of organized crime WHEREAS Octavio Rojas Hernández, a reporter with the newspaper El Buen Tono in Oaxaca, Mexico, who covered matters concerning organized crime, was murdered on August 11 WHEREAS Luis Carlos Cervantes, director of community radio station Morena FM, in Tarazá, Antioquia province, was murdered on August 12; 15 days before his murder he had been threatened, something that occurred shortly after the National Protection Unit (UNP), an agency in charge of providing protection, withdrew it from him after making a study of risks WHEREAS Carlos José Orellana, a cameraman with Canal 99 television in Usulután province, El Salvador, was murdered on July 12 WHEREAS Donny Buchelli Cueva, host of the program “Más Noticias” (More News) broadcast by Más Radio, Pacasmayo province, Lambayeque region, Peru, was murdered on July 8 WHEREAS the disappearance in Mexico since October 10 was reported of the editor and reporter of the magazine Nueva Prensa in Sinaloa, Jesús Antonio Gamboa Urías, whose reporting on corruption could have put him at risk 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 in Honduras, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador and Peru and call for greater political will, rigorous and urgent administration of the available legal instruments to determine the motives for these crimes and punish the perpetrators and masterminds to ask the authorities of Honduras to extend and speed up the investigations into the murders of Nery Francsico Soto Torres, Herlyn Espinal and Carlos Hilario Mejía Orellana, so as to fully solve them and put an end to impunity to require the authorities of Paraguay to act speedily and appropriately to solve the murders of Pablo Medina, Édgar Fernández and Fausto Gabriel Alcaraz so as to learn the motives and establish responsibilities to reiterate to the authorities of Mexico that they investigate in depth the murder of Octavio Rojas Hernández and the circumstances surrounding the disappearance and probable murder of online activist María del Rosario Fuentes Rubio, so as to learn in detail the causes and ensure the effective application of justice to urge the authorities of Colombia to continue the investigations into the murder of Luis Carlos Cervantes so as to learn the motive for the crime, identify those responsible and bring them to trial, and continue the inquiries concerning the lifting of his protection to ask the authorities of El Salvador to conduct an exhaustive investigation to clarify whether the motives for the murder of Carlos José Orellana are connected to his work as a journalist to call upon the authorities of Peru to urgently investigate to clarify and learn whether the murder of Donny Buchelli Cueva was connected to his professional activity and punish its perpetrators and masterminds to urge the authorities of Sinaloa, Mexico, and the Mexican Attorney General’s Office to locate journalist Jesús Antonio Gamboa Urías and investigate his disappearance in depth so as to learn the reasons, that there be no doubt about what has occurred and not let this go unpunished.