Resolución de la 70ª Asamblea General
Santiago, Chile
17 al 21 de octubre de 2014
Whereas on August 11th journalist Octavio Rojas Hernández, correspondent in Cosalapa of newspaper El Buen Tono de Córdoba, Veracruz, was murdered due to his publications on organized crime and corruption.
Whereas on February 5th the reporter of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz was kidnapped and murdered, and from the beginning IAPA denounced his court record contains serious errors that could allow the release of the detained, who were awarded a measure allowing them to obtain their freedom within few months; and the authorities have ceased the investigation that would enable them to arrest all the individuals responsible and the PGR has not made any progress in the case.
Whereas municipal and state officials have committed serious attacks against journalists who criticize them and none has been accused or sued, such is the case of the blows against reporter Karla Janeth Silva and the editorial secretary Adriana Elizabeth Palacios of the newspaper El Heraldo de Silao of Guanajuato by three individuals inside the premises of the mass media company.
Whereas the attacks committed by municipal, state and federal policemen, as well as by the Army and the Marine against journalists continue to occur in Sinaloa, Morelos, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chihuahua, Michoacán, Tamaulipas, Chiapas, Sonora, Mexico City and Baja California, and they are spreading throughout the territory and becoming increasingly serious, and the authorities have not investigated or punished them and have kept them in the most absolute impunity.
Whereas although as of May 2013 the federal authorities took over the control of safety in Michoacán to face the serious situation prevailing, and so far they have not gone deeper in investigating the murder and the disappearance of journalists by reason of their profession, such as Lázaro Cárdenas (1991), Ramiro Ramírez Duarte (1999), Jaime Arturo Olvera Bravo (2006), José Antonio García Apac (2006), Juan Pablo Solías (2007), Gerardo Israel García Pimentel (2007), Mauricio Estrada Zamora (2008), Miguel Ángel Villagómez Valle (2008), Martín Javier Miranda Avilés (2009), María Esther Casimbe (2009), Ramón Ángeles Zalapa (2010) and Hugo Alfredo Olvera Cartas (2010).
Whereas since 2012, the Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists of the Government's Secretariat constituted itself as a government agency to provide expedite service to the cases of serious threats against freedom of speech; however, its scope of action has been limited and it has not had an effective impact.
Whereas the state and federal Mexican governments have set up entities to investigate and protect freedom of speech; however, these offices created inside the Legislative Power, the Attorney General Offices, the Human Rights Commissions and the political parties have not shown effective results in the cases they are investigating, because in most of them the material and intellectual offenders have not been detained.
Whereas the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes Against the Freedom of Speech (FEADLE) informed IAPA that the court already closed the file for the disappearance of journalist Alfredo Jiménez Mota of the newspaper El Imparcial of Sonora, whose whereabouts are still unknown, and although it requested access thereto through past resolutions issued by IAPA and by the Transparency Act, in the former case we have received no answer and in the latter, the PGR denied access to a public version of the court record.
Whereas Principle 4 of Chapultepec Declaration provides: "Murder, terrorism, kidnapping, undue pressure, intimidation, unfair imprisonment of journalists, material destruction of mass media, violence of any kind and impunity of the offenders seriously throttle the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. These acts must be promptly investigated and severely punished".
THE IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES
To request the Attorney General of Oaxaca to investigate in-depth the murder of Octavio Rojas Hernández as well as the murders of the following individuals in an urgent manner: Bradley Ronald Will, Raúl Marcial Pérez, Agustín López, Flor Vásquez López, Mateo Cortés Martínez, Felícitas Martínez, Teresa Bautista Flores and Alberto López Bello
To urgently request the General Attorney's Office and the Attorney General of the state of Veracruz to reinforce their accusations against the individuals detained for the kidnapping and murder of Gregorio Jiménez de la Cruz, and to progress in the investigations to arrest the accomplices and the intellectual authors of this murder, in addition to provide a public report of the case.
To request the General Attorney's Office of the Republic through the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes against Freedom of Speech (FEADLE) to resume the investigations on attacks against journalists where they suspect the involvement of municipal, state or federal officials, and to review the cases occurred in Guanajuato, Quintana Roo, Sinaloa, Morelos, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chihuahua, Michoacán, Tamaulipas, Chiapas, Sonora, Mexico City and Baja California
To request from the Congress of the Union and the Federal Executive Power greater firmness on the part of the institutions they have set up to prevent, oversee and investigate the crimes committed against freedom of speech, granting them more economic resources and sufficient personnel so they can undertake an effective work and cease the impunity of the cases
To request to the Attorney General of the Republic to allow IAPA access to a public version of the court record on the disappearance of Alfredo Jiménez Mota, to know the actions sponsored by the Public Ministry, considering the Supreme Court of Justice has determined that access to court records shall not be denied in cases of serious violations of human rights
To request President Enrique Peña Nieto to enforce his commitment to the respect of freedom of speech pursuant to the resolutions issued by the Inter American Human Rights Commission for the cases of Héctor Félix Miranda and Víctor Manuel Oropeza, which the Mexican state has refused to comply with.
