62nd
General Assembly
Mexico City, Mexico
September 29 to October 3, 2006
Camino Real Hotel
Reports and Resolutions
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MEXICO
Resolution of the 62nd General Assembly
Mexico City, Mexico
September 29 – October 3, 2006
WHEREAS
Rafael Ortiz Martínez, a reporter for the daily El Zócalo of Monclova
and host of a morning radio news show run by the same company, disappeared in
the early morning of July 8, 2006; his whereabouts are still unknown, and he
is feared dead
WHEREAS
the Attorney General’s Office of the state of Coahuila began an investigation
but has nothing to show for it nearly three months after the disappearance of
Ortiz Martínez; the federal Office of the Attorney General opened a file
on the case but has not produced solid results either; and none of the authorities
have shown interest in the case
WHEREAS
on August 9 the body of Enrique Perea Quintanilla, editor of the magazine Dos
Caras, Una Verdad in the city of Chihuahua, was found with two bullet wounds
and extensive signs of torture, and the state government admitted that the murder
may be linked to organized crime
WHEREAS
several weeks later, the investigation into the murder of Perea Quintanilla
was taken over by the federal Office of the Attorney General, which followed
several leads, all of them related to bands of drug traffickers in the region;
so far no information has been released about the culprits
WHEREAS
radio host Ramiro Téllez Contreras, who was also the emergency services
coordinator for the city police, was shot and murdered by at least three unknown
assailants as he left home for station EXA-FM in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas on
March 10, 2006; the Attorney General’s Office of Tamaulipas state opened
the investigation but has yet to announce any progress, and the reasons behind
the murder remain unknown
WHEREAS
since August in the city of Oaxaca, media outlets and journalists have been
under attack from state authorities, former officials and political groups who
have physically assaulted reporters and threatened them with weapons; the buildings
have been besieged on several occasions, and groups protesting the state government
have forcibly taken over several radio stations; and masked individuals opened
fire on the facilities of the state-run Corporación Oaxaqueña
de Radio y Televisión
WHEREAS
on August 9 two armed men took over the offices of the daily Noticias Voz e
Imagen de Oaxaca and fired shots, injuring two of the newspaper’s vendors,
Isabel Cruz and Adrián Cervantes; this is one of many attacks on the
newspaper since 2005, none of which have been investigated by the proper authorities
WHEREAS
reporters Manuel Acuña López, Jaime Vargas Chable and Víctor
Lara Martínez of the newspaper Por Esto! in Yucatán state have
been attacked in various incidents since October of last year; Acuña
López and Vargas Chable were attacked with Molotov cocktails, while Lara
Martínez was jailed for several hours without cause, which he blamed
on Yucatán Governor Patricio Patrón Laviada and other members
of his administration; and in none of these cases has the Attorney General’s
Office of Yucatán state arrested the culprits
WHEREAS
on August 23 and September 1, unknown assailants threw hand grenades at the
offices of Por Esto! in the cities of Mérida, Yucatán and Cancún,
Quintana Roo, injuring four employees and causing minor property damage; newspaper
executives said the assault was carried out by members of organized crime groups
with the complicity of certain state authorities; and though the federal Office
of the Attorney General took over the investigation, no progress has been reported
WHEREAS
on September 6 of this year in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, an armed commando
group shot at two vehicles carrying journalist Eugenia Cícero Rivera
of the evening newspaper PM and photographers Aurelio Suárez Núñez
(also of PM) and Jaime Murrieta Briones (of the newspaper El Diario)
WHEREAS
Article 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states: “murder, terrorism,
kidnapping, 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 demand that the Attorney
General’s Office of the state of Coahuila renounce its jurisdiction over
the investigation into the disappearance of Rafael Ortiz Martínez, a
reporter for the newspaper and radio station owned by the Zócalo Group
of Monclova, Coahuila, and that it hand over the case to the federal Office
of the Attorney General, in view of the apparent involvement of drug traffickers
from the region
to demand that the Special
Unit for Crimes Against Journalists of the federal Office of the Attorney General
take over the investigation into the disappearance of journalist Rafael Ortiz
Martínez in view of the lack of progress after nearly three months, the
lack of confidence in the state authorities, and the apparent involvement of
drug traffickers
to ask the federal Office
of the Attorney General to pursue and expedite the investigation into the murder
of Enrique Perea Quintanilla, editor of the magazine Dos Caras, Una Verdad of
Chihuahua
to urge the Attorney General’s
Office of Tamaulipas state to properly investigate the murder of radio host
Ramiro Téllez Contreras
to demand that the Oaxaca
state government and the federal government guarantee the safety of all journalists
in the city of Oaxaca so that they are no longer subjected to assaults and threats
from protestors and armed groups
to urge the Attorney General’s
Office of the state of Oaxaca to renounce its jurisdiction over the investigation
into the assaults on radio and newspaper journalists and facilities, in order
to make the investigation more transparent
to urge the Special Unit
for Crimes Against Journalists of the federal Office of the Attorney General
to take over the investigation into the threats and assaults against journalists
in Oaxaca in recent months, as well as attacks and takeovers at radio facilities
by protestors and at the newspaper Noticias Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca by authorities
and unknown groups
to demand that the Attorney
General’s Office of the state of Yucatán announce the results of
its investigation into the assaults on journalists of the daily Por Esto!
to press the federal Office
of the Attorney General to announce the results of its investigation into the
attacks on the facilities of the newspaper Por Esto! in Quintana Roo and Yucatán,
in order to keep these crimes from going unpunished and encouraging similar
attacks
to urge the Attorney General’s
Office of the state of Chihuahua to continue pursuing the investigation into
the attacks on journalist Eugenia Cícero Rivera and photographers Aurelio
Suárez Núñez and Jaime Murrieta Briones, and that all culprits
be prosecuted.
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