Impunity Murders and Missing

Aa
Midyear Meeting 2018
Medellin, Colombia
April, 13-15
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WHEREAS since the General Assembly in October 2017 to date there have been murdered 14 journalists, four in Mexico,three in Ecuador, two in Brazil, two in Guatemala, one each in Honduras, Colombia and El Salvador, and another journalist who has disappeared in Haiti

WHEREAS journalist Javier Ortega, photographer Paul Rivas and driver Efraín Segarra of El Comercio newspaper in Quito were abducted in the Mataje area of Esmeraldas province, north of Ecuador on the border with Colombia on March 26, 2018 and subsequently they were killed by their captors.

WHEREAS Leobardo Vázquez Atzin, who published on the news portal "Enlace Gutiérrez Zamora" on Facebook, was murdered on March 21, 2018, in the town of

Gutiérrez Zamora, Veracruz, Mexico

WHEREAS Pamela Montenegro del Real, video blogger and host of a satirical political program on Internet channel El Sillón TV, was murdered on February 5, 2018, in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico

WHEREAS Laurent Ángel Castillo Cifuentes, correspondent of the newspaper Nuestro Diario, was murdered on February 1, 2018, and his body was found in Mazatenango, Suchitepéquez, Guatemala

WHEREAS Luis Alfredo de León Miranda, advertising executive of Radio Coaltepec, was murdered on February 1, 2018, and his body was found in Mazatenango, Suchitepéquez, Guatemala

WHEREAS Jefferson Pureza Lopes, host of the program "A Voz do Povo" on radio station Beira Rio FM, was murdered on January 17, 2018, in Edealina, Goiás, Brazil

WHEREAS Ueliton Bayer Brizon, owner of the portal Jornal de Rondônia, was murdered on January 16, 2018, in Cacoal, Rondônia, Brazil

WHEREAS Carlos Domínguez, writer of the political column El Horizonte de Matamoros which circulated on social media, was murdered on January 13, 2018, in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico

WHEREAS Gumaro Pérez Aguilando, founder and security issues reporter of the portal La Voz del Sur, was murdered on December 9, 2017, in Acayucan, Veracruz, Mexico

WHEREAS Samuel Rivas, cameraman of Canal 21/Grupo Megavisión television, was murdered on November 16, 2017, in the town of Ilopango, San Salvador, El Salvador

WHEREAS Carlos Oveniel Lara Domínguez, cameraman of Canal 12 Telemayo television in La Entrada neighborhood, in the town of Nueva Arcadia, Copán province, Honduras, was murdered on October 23, 2017

WHEREAS Efigenia Vásquez Astudillo, indigenous journalist with the communications group of Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC) and of the radio station Renacer Kokonuko 90.7 FM, Puracé, Cauca, Colombia, was murdered on October 8, 2017

WHEREAS Vladjimir Legagneur, freelance news photographer, has been missing since March 14, 2018, when he was about to make a report in the Grand-Ravine neighborhood, one of the poorest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti

WHEREAS since October there have reached statute of limitations in Colombia four legal cases of murder of journalists, the cases being those of Óscar García, on February 22, 2018; Jairo Elías Márquez, November 20, 2017; Francisco Castro, on November 8, 2017, and Alejandro Jaramillo Barbosa, on October 24, 2017

WHEREAS in these six months there were noted advances in the search for justice in crimes against journalists in several countries of the region; in Colombia there was handed down the highest sentence ordered in the country for a crime against freedom of expression in the murders of journalist Luis Antonio Peralta and his wife Sofía Quintero in 2015, and also jailed was the alleged co-perpetrator of the murder of Flor Alba Núñez Vargas in 2015; in Paraguay there was handed down a sentence of 39 years in prison to the instigator of the murders of Pablo Medina and his collaborator Antonia Almada in 2014; in Guatemala there was named the person allegedly responsible for the murders of Danilo López and Federico Salazar in 2015; in Mexico sentenced to 25 years in prison were two former police officers for the murder of Moisés Sánchez Cerezo in 2015, and there were arrested six persons allegedly responsible for the murder of Carlos Domínguez on January 13, 2018; in the Dominican Republic there was convicted one of the murderers of José Silvestre in 2011 and there is in jail a suspect of the murder of Blas Olivo in 2015

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 IAPA MIDYEAR MEETING RESOLVES

to condemn the murders of Leobardo Vázquez Atzin, Pamela Montenegro del Real, Carlos Domínguez and Gumaro Pérez Aguilando in México; Javier Ortega, Paul Rivas and Efraín Segarra in Ecuador; Jefferson Pureza Lopes and Ueliton Bayer Brizon in Brazil; Laurent Ángel Castillo Cifuentes and Luis Alfredo de León Mirand in Guatemala; Carlos Oveniel Lara Domínguez in Honduras; Samuel Rivas in El Salvador, and Efigenia Vásquez Astudillo in Colombia; as well as the disappearance of Vladjimir Legagneur in Haiti

to insist to the governments and authorities of Mexico, Ecuador Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia and Haiti that they comply with their responsibility to investigate, identify the perpetrators and masterminds and apply the corresponding sanctions to those involved in these crimes against journalists

to reiterate to the government of Colombia that it investigate and punish those responsible for the murders of journalists in order to seek justice and prevent the expiration of the statute of limitations leaving the crimes in total impunity

to express satisfaction at the actions of the judiciary in Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico and Paraguay aimed at bringing the alleged suspects to justice in the murders of journalists in those countries.

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