62nd
General Assembly
Mexico City, Mexico
September 29 to October 3, 2006
Camino Real Hotel
Reports and Resolutions
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IMPUNITY-COLOMBIA
II
Resolution of the 62nd General Assembly
Mexico City, Mexico
September 29 – October 3, 2006
WHEREAS
four years after the murder of journalist Orlando Sierra, assistant editor of
the daily La Patria of Manizales, the attorney general’s office summoned
Ferney Tapasco, former leader of the Caldas provincial legislature, whose name
was mentioned by three witnesses more than a year ago as allegedly responsible
for the journalist’s death, to give a “spontaneous declaration”
WHEREAS
the attorney general’s office accused Pablo Emilio Quintero Dodino and
Bolmar Said Sepúlveda as the hit men in the crime against José
Emeterio Rivas on April 7, 2003, but at the same time it closed the investigation
against Julio Cesar Ardila Torres, former mayor of Barrancabermeja as the suspected
mastermind
WHEREAS
in the case of the murder of Efraín Alberto Varela Noriega, of radio
station Meridiano 70 on June 28, 2002, in Arauca, on July 27, Andrés
Darío Cervantes Montoya, alias “El Chiche,” told a prosecutor
that he had killed Varela Noriega and accepted a plea bargain
WHEREAS
among at least 15 investigations chosen to be given special treatment, the probes
of the murders of Carlos Lajud Catalán (suspended in February 2006) and
Gustavo Ruiz Cantillo (suspended in January 2004) were reactivated and their
cases were transferred from Barranquilla and Santa Marta respectively to the
Human Rights Unit in Bogota
WHEREAS
despite the firm commitment by prosecutor Mario Iguarán and Leonardo
Cabana, director of the Human Rights Unit, to move forward on at least 15 adjudications
of crimes against journalists in the last six months, almost 20 percent of the
cases remained suspended and more than 45 percent were still in the evidence
gathering stage
WHEREAS
in the IAPA Rapid Reaction Unit’s followup of the attorney general’s
office’s effort to find those responsible for the murders of journalists,
we have been able to establish that they need more resources and steady support
from the Judicial Police
WHEREAS
between November 2004, when the Human Rights Unit of the attorney general’s
office took over the case of the murder of Jaime Garzón (August 13, 1999)
and today, it has made little or no progress, even though a judge asked the
attorney general’s office to “separately and immediately pursue
the investigation to identify and punish the hit men and other participants
in the crime against the journalist”
WHEREAS
Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says “Freedom of expression
and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, pressure,
intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities,
violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators. Such acts must be investigated
promptly and punished harshly
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
THE IAPA RESOLVES
to acknowledge the commitment of the national attorney general’s office
to strengthen the investigations in order to begin to obtain positive results
in the cases of journalists Orlando Sierra, José Emeterio Rivas and Efraín
Varela Noriega and request that the progress reported be translated into evidence
that makes it possible for the judges to punish the masterminds behind these
crimes
to urge the national attorney
general’s office that, in the process of reactivating the investigations
of the homicides of Carlos Lajud Catalán, murdered on March 19, 1993,
and Gustavo Ruiz Cantillo, murdered on November 15, 2000, to do the investigations
with solid evidence and to that end to strengthen the human and technical resources
so the judges can convict those who are responsible
to urge the national attorney
general’s office to take the steps necessary to reactivate all the investigations
that are stalled in the evidence gathering stage, in some cases for almost 10
years, and to comply with the IAPA’s repeated request to review every
one of the cases of crimes against journalists that have been shelved or suspended
to determine if it is possible to reactivate them in the various regional prosecutor’s
offices
to urge the national attorney
general’s office to provide greater human and technical resources to the
prosecutors in the Human Rights Unit along with steady support from the Judicial
Police so the unit can move forward efficiently in their investigations
to ask the national attorney
general’s office to explain the reason that there has been no progress
in the investigation of the murder of Jaime Garzón in Bogota on August
13, 1999, and take immediate steps so that the investigative process will guarantee
the hoped for results, the punishment of the murderers.
 questions
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