(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 27 March 2002 IAPA press release: IAPA urges governments to bring guilty to justice MIAMI, Florida (March 27, 2002)-The Inter American Press Association has issued a call to the governments of nine countries in the Americas to act to end the impunity that continues to surround 30 cases of […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 27 March 2002 IAPA press release:
IAPA urges governments to bring guilty to justice
MIAMI, Florida (March 27, 2002)-The Inter American Press Association has issued a call to the governments of nine countries in the Americas to act to end the impunity that continues to surround 30 cases of the murder of journalists committed since 1984, speed up inquiries to solve such crimes and bring those who ordered the killings and actually carried them out to trial.
The hemispheric free-press organization said that in the official investigations in the majority of the cases there was clearly negligence, indifference, an absence of political will, lack of an adequate legal framework, a weak judicial system, deficient investigative work by poorly-trained police detectives, insufficient financial resources to ensure public safety and the administration of justice, and corruption of officials.
During its Midyear Meeting in La Romana, Dominican Republic, March 15-19, the IAPA adopted resolutions concerning the murder of journalists. These resolutions are being sent by IAPA President Robert J. Cox, assistant editor of The Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina, in protest messages to the governments of Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico and Paraguay.
In Bolivia, the organization called on the government to reopen an investigation into the July 29, 2001, murder of Juan Carlos Encinas.
It is also asking the Brazilian government for a response to its request for renewed action in nine murder investigations that have either slowed down or stalled completely. The IAPA resolution mentions the murders of Reinaldo Coutinho da Silva in 1995, Manoel Leal de Oliveira on October 14, 1998, Edgar Lopes de Faria on October 29, 1997, Ronaldo Santana de Araújo on October 9, 1997, José Carlos Mesquita on March 10, 1998, Maria Nilce Magalhães on July 5, 1989, Mário Eugenio Rafael de Oliveira on November 11, 1984, José Wellington Fernándes on March 13, 2000, and Mário Coelho de Almeida, Jr. on August 16, 2001. The IAPA plans to send a mission to Brazil later this year, announced Impunity Committee Chairman Alberto Ibargüen, publisher of The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida.
The resolution concerning Colombia also deals with nine murders – those of Alvaro Alonso Escobar on December 23, 2001, Orlando Sierra Hernández on February 21, 2002, Amparo Leonor Jiménez on August 11, 1998, Guzmán Quintero Torres on September 16, 1999, Jaime Garzón on August 13, 1999, Gerardo Bedoya on March 21, 1997, Hernando Rangel Moreno on April 11, 1999, Jairo Elías Márquez on November 20, 1997, and Ernesto Acero Cadena on December 12, 1995.
In Haiti, where there has been an escalation of violence against the press in recent months, the IAPA is calling for the government to take the necessary steps to solve the murders of journalists Brignol Lindor on December 3, 2001, Gerard Denoze on December 15, 2001, and Jean Leopold Dominique on April 3, 2000.
In the case of Mexico, it is urging President Vicente Fox’s administration and the judiciary to bring to justice those guilty of the murders of Félix Fernández García on January 18, 2002, Philip True on December 16, 1998, Héctor Félix Miranda on April 29, 1998, and Víctor Manuel Oropeza on July 3, 1991.
These cases were investigated by the IAPA within the framework of the Unpunished Crimes Against Journalists project that it launched in 1995 with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Reports on these inquiries, their findings and the resolutions stemming from them are posted on the Web site www.impunidad.com
