(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 25 August 2005 IAPA press release: IAPA DEPLORES IMPUNITY IN DEATH OF BOLIVIAN JOURNALIST It calls on the public to sign letters of support at http://www.impunidad.com MIAMI, Florida (August 25, 2005) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA), in an announcement published today in 318 newspapers around the Western […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 25 August 2005 IAPA press release:
IAPA DEPLORES IMPUNITY IN DEATH OF BOLIVIAN JOURNALIST
It calls on the public to sign letters of support at http://www.impunidad.com
MIAMI, Florida (August 25, 2005) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA), in an announcement published today in 318 newspapers around the Western Hemisphere, expressed regret that the July 29, 2001, murder of Bolivian journalist Juan Carlos Encinas continues to go unpunished.
Encinas, a radio and television reporter, was shot at point-blank range while covering a clash between rival groups disputing the exploitation of limestone in Catavi, Los Andes province, some 30 miles from the Bolivian capital, La Paz. The judge in the case, at the request of the public prosecutor, ordered the arrest of 17 suspects, but all were released on bail set at the equivalent of approximately $900.
Seven months after the murder, the main suspect, Eugenio Limachi Mamani, was sentenced to six years and two months in prison, but fled on being released on bond and has never served his sentence. All indications are that there has been no real effort made to find him. In the abrupt political and administrative changes in Bolivia, the judge and public prosecutor were transferred to other duties.
“Newsgathering and the free circulation of ideas and news are bastions of democracy,” declared the chairman of IAPA’s Impunity Committee, Enrique Santos Calderon, editor of the Bogotá, Colombia, daily newspaper El Tiempo. “Because of the experience in my country, I am aware of the attacks, pressure and crimes committed in a bid to silence the messenger. We are fighting throughout the hemisphere for these crimes not to end up forgotten and for the guilty to receive the maximum punishment.”
In the announcement published in the press throughout the Americas this week, in addition to repudiating Encinas’ death and the fact it continues to go unpunished, the IAPA invited members of the international community to add their signatures to a letter that will be sent to Bolivian President Eduardo Rodríguez asking him to take action to ensure that justice is done and that whoever committed Encinas’ murder be duly punished.
The IAPA in the past two and a half years has published 30 such announcements and sent letters to the respective presidents signed by a total of 17,250 newspaper readers from throughout the hemisphere.
