IMPUNITY/PERU

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Resolution of the 70th General Assembly

Santiago, Chile

October 17 – 21, 2014



WHEREAS since 1982 more than 50 journalists have been killed in the country and most of these murders remain unpunished, although in 2010 the law expanded the competence of Supra Provincial Criminal Courts of Lima and the Supra Provincial Prosecutor of Lima to take care of crimes against journalists.

WHEREAS the Supreme Criminal Courtroom confirmed in July the acquittal of Luis Valdez Villacorta, former mayor of Coronel Portillo and of Solio Ramírez Garay, former judge of Ucayali region, accused of being the intellectual authors of the murder of the broadcast journalist Alberto Rivera Fernández, in the city of Pucallpa in 2004, although new evidence and testimonies submitted by the defense showed that the former mayor had reasons to put a hit over the journalist in retaliation for Rivera's journalistic denunciation linking him to drug trafficking

WHEREAS the Institute for Legal Defense (IDL) informed that the District Attorney of Ayacucho reopened the case in June 2013, and sponsored a process against the ministry of the Interior, retired General Daniel Urresti Elera for the murder of Hugo Bustíos Saavedra, correspondent of Caretas magazine in Ayacucho on November 24, 1988. The journalist was ambushed and killed by Army officers at the Military Base of Castropampa, Huanta, Ayacucho; the court record is lodged with the Third Appellate Prosecutor's Office of the Nation where the judges will decide if there are merits to start a trial, continue the investigation or close the process.

WHEREAS new elements exist that could help clarify the murder of Pedro Flores Silva, journalist of Channel 6 Television, in Casma, Ancash region in 2011, based on hundreds of testimonies collected by the Oversight Commission of the National Congress, the Attorney General (Comptroller of the Republic); the general director of the National Police, the Anticorruption Attorney General for acts of corruption, extortion, contract killing, in murders involving César Álvarez, president of the regional government of Ancash since 2006; high officials of diverse municipalities, the Regional Government, the National Police, the Public Ministry and the Judiciary in that zone of the country

WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes: "Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, pressure, intimidation, unjust imprisonment of journalists, 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 request the government of Peru to comply with a series of obligations to fight against impunity, namely investigating and punishing these murders,

To request the Third Appellate Prosecutor's Office and later the Criminal Court of the Nation in Lima to investigate the murder of journalist Hugo Bustíos Saavedra and to have them act with due promptness and diligence to clarify the case

To request from Enrique Mendoza Ramírez, President of the Judiciary information as to why the Army officers who killed the Ayacucho reporter Hugo Bustíos Saavedra on November 24, 1988, Víctor La Vera Hernández and Amador Vidal Sanbento, were condemned to 17 and 15 years of imprisonment, respectively, on October 2, 2007. They were released in 2011 and they didn't even serve one fourth of their sentence.

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