MIAMI, Florida (April 9, 2007)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA)
today expressed outrage at the murder of journalist Amado Ramírez in Acapulco,
Mexico, and once again called on the country’s authorities to take a tougher
stance on crimes against journalists there.
Ramírez, a reporter for 14 years for the TV network Televisa, was killed
on April 6 in the center of the Pacific Coast tourist resort of Acapulco in
Guerrero state. Ramírez, a 20-year journalism veteran, had just wound
up his daily news program “Al Tanto” (Keeping Informed) broadcast
by the local Televisa affiliate station Radiorama when an unidentified man firing
a caliber .38 pistol shot him five times, according to an initial investigation
by the IAPA’s Rapid Response Unit in Mexico.
Local reports questioned by the Rapid Response Unit said Ramírez was
not known to have received any prior threat.
“We mourn Ramírez’ violent death, which joins those of other
colleagues in Mexico that have still to be solved. In this regard we insist
on urging the federal government to deal with all the attacks upon and crimes
committed against journalists, so as to prevent the lack of legal action giving
rise to fear and self-censorship in this country,” declared Gonzalo Marroquín,
chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.
Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa
Libre, also referred to a resolution adopted by the IAPA during its Midyear
Meeting last month in Colombia in which it noted that “attacks on and
threats to journalists in Mexico have continued to increase and extend to more
states around the country, no longer just along the northern and southern Mexican
borders, without the federal and local authorities investigating and arresting
those responsible, causing self-censorship to continue on the rise.
Ramírez’ murder came five weeks after the Municipal Police precinct
in Acapulco received a telephone call in which a man warned that “beginning
today we are going to kill 21 well-known people and radio and television reporters.”
According to some eye-witnesses the killer shouted “I told you not to
interfere with us!” but others denied this, saying he merely fired his
gun and gave Ramirez the coup de grace as he lay on the floor.
So far this year in Guerrero state alone some 90 execution-style killings,
apparently linked to the illicit drug trade, have been reported.
From October 2006 to date murdered in Mexico have been Roberto Marcos García
and Bradley Ronald Will, while reporters Rodolfo Rincón Taracena and
José Antonio García Apac remain missing – all cases believed
to be connected to their work as journalists. Meanwhile, the murders of Raúl
Marcial Pérez, Adolfo Sánchez and Misael Tamayo Hernández
are under investigation to determine the motives.
