(SPP/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 5 March 2006 SPP press release: The Journalists’ Union of Paraguay (SPP) expresses its concern about the state’s obvious lack of interest in investigating the disappearance of journalist Enrique Ramón Galeano on 4 February 2006 in Yvy Ya’u, Concepción department. There are contradictions between the […]
(SPP/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 5 March 2006 SPP press release:
The Journalists’ Union of Paraguay (SPP) expresses its concern about the state’s obvious lack of interest in investigating the disappearance of journalist Enrique Ramón Galeano on 4 February 2006 in Yvy Ya’u, Concepción department.
There are contradictions between the explanations provided by Interior Minister Rogelio Benítez to the SPP on 2 March and the information collected the same day by a delegation that visited the site of the crime. Interior Ministry Secretary Pedro Benítez and representatives of the Human Rights Coordinating Office (Coordinadora de Derechos Humanos del Paraguay, CODEHUPY) and the Network of Citizens’ Monitoring Groups (Red de Contralorías Ciudadanas) participated in that visit.
Prior to his disappearance, Galeano was receiving police protection at his home. The interior minister stated that our colleague had requested police guards, but that neither the minister nor the local police knew why. The officer in charge of the local police station, Osvaldo Núñez, in statements to Prosecutor Marcial Núñez, denied that police had been providing protection and said that he was unaware that there had been any death threats or threats of any other nature against the journalist.
However, Galeano’s wife, Bernardina Quintana, told the delegation the opposite. “Police chief Núñez lied when he said he didn’t know police guards had been at our home. He came here in person and I went out to speak with him. They [the police] came in three trucks. They said ‘We’re going to put all your household effects on the truck. We’re going to take you to your mother-in-law’s or to the station.’ He called my husband and closed off the road and told him that there was a death threat against him, saying ‘we’ve come to guard you.’ Galeano asked him, ‘Tell me what’s going on, so I know.’ The police chief responded: ‘the Congress member [Magdaleno Silva] sent us. He received a call that you’re under threat. He sent us to guard you.’ My husband didn’t know what he was being threatened with, but they [the police] supposedly knew everything,” added Quintana.
Neighbours have indicated that their impression is that Galeano’s disappearance is politically motivated and that they do not trust the authorities. One, Wilson Simonetti, commented that a woman had arrived at the couple’s home to tell Quintana where her husband had been killed, that she had witnessed the killing herself. “The lady was afraid, because of the unsafe situation throughout the city,” he added.
This is only some of the information collected by the delegation, but neither the Interior Ministry, nor the National Police, nor the Prosecutor General’s Office have taken the trouble to collect information to move the investigation forward. If they have not, it is because they are covering something up or protecting someone.
Members of the SPP will be meeting with Prosecutor General Rubén Candia Amarilla on 6 February, to explain their concerns about his officials’ lack of action, and to urge that a thorough investigation be carried out.
Our colleague’s life is at stake.
Asunción, 5 March 2006
Eduardo Arce
Secretary, Minutes and Records
Vicente Páez
General Assistant Secretary
