(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – On 15 December 2006, journalists Robert Marín García and Dina Meza, both members of the Revistazo.com on-line newspaper team of the Association for a More Just Society (Asociación por una Sociedad más Justa, ASJ), spoke with National Human Rights Commissioner (Comisionado Nacional de los Derechos Humanos) Ramón Custodio, to report the existence of […]
(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – On 15 December 2006, journalists Robert Marín García and Dina Meza, both members of the Revistazo.com on-line newspaper team of the Association for a More Just Society (Asociación por una Sociedad más Justa, ASJ), spoke with National Human Rights Commissioner (Comisionado Nacional de los Derechos Humanos) Ramón Custodio, to report the existence of a plot to kill them for their investigations regarding the operations of two private security companies that provide services to the government.
Intelligence sources tied to state security service bodies have warned the journalists about “the existence of an apparent plan by these companies [the private security companies] to execute us,” Marín García told the Committee for Free Expression (Comité por la Libre Expresión, C-Libre).
The sources told the journalists to be careful, because those conspiring to kill them “are bloodthirsty” and very eager to kill them. The sources even suggested that the journalists seek protection in order to leave the country.
Since the 4 December murder of lawyer Dionisio García, who was also a member of the research team, Marín García, project coordinator Meza, Rosa Morazán and Claudia Mendoza have been obliged to take extreme security measures after receiving anonymous threats, being followed by strangers, and unusual assaults on people living near their homes.
As well, ASJ board president Carlos Hernández was followed by two strangers and on 7 December received a death threat by text message on his cell phone, in English. On 13 December unidentified individuals circulated in his neighbourhood, asking where he lived, ASJ staff reported to C-Libre.
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García’s murder was widely condemned. In a recent telephone conversation between ASJ representatives and Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, the president told them he was sorry about the incident, but could not deal with their problems because he “had more important issues to take care of,” ASJ told C-Libre, which has been investigating the case.
As well, the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (Comité de Familiares Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, COFADEH) issued a public letter saying it would hold President Zelaya responsible for any attempt on the journalists’ lives, and also asking the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) rapporteur for freedom of expression to instruct the Honduran state to take precautionary measures to protect ASJ’s journalists, staff and their family members.
In addition to the above, on 15 December Human Rights Commissioner (Comisionado de los Derechos Humanos) Ramón Custodio sent an official memorandum to President Zelaya, also asking for precautionary measures to be taken to protect the ASJ journalists and board president, as well as their family members, and for García’s murder to be investigated. Custodio asked the same of the IACHR. He told C-Libre that he will do “even the impossible, to protect these young people’s lives, because we don’t want any more surprises or impunity.”
In his memorandum to the president, the commissioner stated, “there is a real threat to the life and personal safety of Hernández, Meza, Marín García, Morazán and other employees of this organisation.”
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This alert was prepared by PROBIDAD with information provided by C-Libre.
