IMPUNITY – MEXICO (2)
WHEREAS at this time the states where it is the most dangerous to work as a journalist, because of the deterioration in the environment of security and the prevailing fear given the constant threats that journalists receive – Tabasco, Michoacán, Zacatecas, Quintana Roo, Guanajuato, Veracruz, Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí – without the federal and state authorities modifying this situation and ensuring the free and without fear practice of journalism by members of the press
WHEREAS this year has been one of the most violent ones for the practice of journalism, not only because of the murders of journalists but because threats have caused, due to fear, journalists to abandon their places of residence or their profession, or find themselves obliged to submit to the orders of criminal organizations, given the lack of action by the authorities to protect them, whether it is for being linked to criminal groups or due to negligence
WHEREAS state and federal authorities have disregarded the demand for justice and truth in the crimes against and disappearances of journalists, for which reason there continues to grow the number of states in the country where there prevails impunity in the investigations, this being reported in 23 of the 32 Mexican states, which represents 72% of the territory, such as in the case of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Mexico City, Coahuila, Durango, Mexico state, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Veracruz
WHEREAS in Mexico impunity prevails and the authorities have opted for oblivion, in allowing statute of limitations to be applied in 14 cases of the murder or disappearance of journalists, to whom justice has not been done: Ezequiel Huerta Acosta (Coahuila 1989); Felipe González Hernández (Mexico state 1987); Alberto Ruvalcaba Torres (Jalisco 1989); Lázaro Cárdenas (Michoacán 1991); Alejandro Campos Moreno (Morelos 1991); Jesús Michel Jacobo and Manuel Burgueño Orduño (Sinaloa 1987 and 1988, respectively); Jessica Elizalde de León (Chihuahua 1993); Cuauhtémoc Ornelas Ocampo (disappeared in Coahuila 1995); Abel Bueno León (Guerrero 1997); Margarito Morales Ramírez (Jalisco 1997); Enrique Peralta Torres and José Luis Rojas (Morelos 1994), and Benjamín Flores (Sonora 1997), for which it is necessary that the government offer a public apology in which there is recognized its responsibility for the lack of justice in these cases
WHEREAS it is essential to evaluate the manner and depth of the work carried out to date by the Special Prosecutor's Office for Dealing With Offenses Committed Against Freedom of Expression (DEADLE) of the Mexican Attorney General's Office, and the state attorney's offices, due to their deficient results and the lack of transparency, after 11 years of the first having been created, impunity has not been curbed and on the contrary it has increased
WHEREAS the IAPA has submitted to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights the cases of Héctor Félix Miranda, Víctor Manuel Oropeza, Alfredo Jiménez Mota, Francisco Ortiz Franco and Benjamín Flores González, without to date the Mexican government having paid attention to any of the resolutions issued by that body, showing lack of will for those crimes not to remain unpunished
WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes: "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 73rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES
to ask the government to deal with determination, promptly and in a comprehensive and coordinated manner with the cases of violence against journalists and news media, and urgently with the resolutions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, as well as offer a public apology regarding the cases that have become subject to statute of limitations and in which because of its responsibility justice does not exist
to ask the government to evaluate and review the work of the public prosecutor's offices and the system of protection of journalists so that they be headed by appropriate persons, that they be given the financial and technical resources to ensure effective work in favor of the journalists and news media.
