WHEREAS, Omar Iván Camacho, a sports journalist, who worked for a local radio station and ran the Évora Sport digital page, was found dead on March 25 in the municipality of Salvador Alvarado, Sinaloa, Mexico.
WHEREAS, Gabriel Hernández, host of the program "El Pueblo Habla" on Canal Valle TV, Nacaóme, in Valle, Honduras, was murdered on March 17, 2019.
WHEREAS, Santiago Barroso Alfaro, host of the "Buenos Días San Luis" program on radio Río Digital, editor of the digital newspaper RED 653 and contributor to the weekly Contraseña, in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, Mexico, was murdered on March 15, 2019.
WHEREAS, Jesús Eugenio Ramos, director of the newscast "Nuestra Región Hoy" on radio Oye 99.9 FM, in the municipality of Emiliano Zapata, Tabasco, Mexico, was murdered on February 9, 2019.
WHEREAS, Rafael Murúa Manríquez, director of the Radio Kashana FM portal, in Santa Rosalía, municipality of Mulegé, Baja California Sur, Mexico, vanished on January 19, 2019 and his body was found the following day.
WHEREAS, Diego García Corona, a reporter for the weekly Morelos, in Morelos, Mexico, was murdered on December 4, 2018.
WHEREAS, Jesús Alejandro Márquez, director of the weekly Orión Informativo, in Nayarit, Mexico, was murdered on December 1, 2018.
WHEREAS, the crime against Hugo Bustíos - the Ayacucho correspondent of Caretas magazine, murdered on November 24, 1988, remains unpunished, after the acquittal of one of the main defendants.
WHEREAS, Principle 4 of the Chapultepec Declaration states: "Murder, terrorism, kidnapping, pressure, intimidation, unjust imprisonment of journalists, material destruction of the media, violence of any kind and impunity for aggressors severely curtail freedom of speech and of the press. These acts must be promptly investigated and severely punished."
THE IAPA MID-YEAR MEETING RESOLVES
Condemn the murders of Gabriel Hernández in Honduras and of Omar Iván Camacho, Santiago Barroso Alfaro, Jesús Eugenio Ramos, Rafael Murúa Manríquez, Diego García Corona and Jesús Alejandro Márquez in Mexico.
Urge the governments and authorities of Honduras and Mexico to uphold their responsibility and investigate without delay to identify all material and intellectual perpetrators, and apply the appropriate punishments to those involved in these crimes.
Call on the Honduran and Mexican authorities to guarantee efficient protection mechanisms for journalists, by assigning the necessary technical and human personnel - as well as the economic resources, so the mission can be carried out in a timely and effective manner.
Stress that the murder of journalists and members of the media constitutes an extreme form of censorship, and that the lack of justice and the impunity encourage other acts of violence, lead to self-censorship as a defense mechanism, and generate an inhibitory effect on the exercise of freedom of expression.
Ask the Supreme Court of Justice of Peru that in the evaluation of the appeal for annulment of the October ruling that acquitted the main suspect in Hugo Bustíos' crime, the evidence be evaluated in accordance with international standards.
Reiterate that solidarity and timely denunciation are the main antidotes to counter the violence and the murders against journalists.
