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IAPA calls for urgent investigation of murder of journalist in Mexico
MIAMI, Florida (November 17, 2006)—For the second time in a week the Inter
American Press Association (IAPA) today called on the Mexican authorities to conduct
a prompt and full investigation to identify the culprits in a murder of a journalist.
“Once again we must come out against the wave of violence in Mexico,
where journalist José Manuel Nava Sánchez was murdered, just a
few days after Misael Tamayo Hernandez was killed,” declared IAPA President
Rafael Molina, speaking from San José, Costa Rica, where his organization
last night wound up its Hemisphere Conference on Journalism Values in the 21st
Century. “Although in neither case is it known if the murders were connected
to the victims’ work as journalists, we cannot remain silent in the face
of the constant reports of violence unleashed in Mexico,” he added.
Nava Sánchez, 53, had been the Washington, DC, correspondent of the
Mexican daily newspaper Excélsior for 22 years. His body was found yesterday
(November 16) at his apartment in Mexico City by his maid. He had been stabbed
12 times. According to the police, the murder had occurred early in the morning.
They reported that a laptop computer and other belongings of his were missing.
Neighbors said they had heard sounds of an argument coming from his apartment.
Nava Sánchez, who was Excélsior’s editor from 2002 to 2005,
on November 6 launched a book he had written titled “Excélsior,
el asalto final” (Excélsior, The Final Round), in which he criticizes
the sale of the newspaper, saying it had been done in conditions of “extreme
irregularity.”
The IAPA’s Molina, editor of the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, newspaper
El Día, said, “We trust that, with the intention of solving this
murder as soon as possible in order to determine who was responsible and bring
the full weight of the law on them, the authorities will respond on an urgent
basis to the recent murders of journalists that have shaken Mexico.”
Statistics compiled by the IAPA show that in 2006 other journalists murdered
in Mexico in addition to Nava Sánchez were Jaime Arturo Olvera Bravo,
in Michoacán state (March 9), Ramiro Téllez Contreras, Tamaulipas
(March 10), Enrique Perea Quintanilla, Chihuahua (August 9), Bradley Ronald
Hill, Oaxaca (October 27) and Misael Tamayo Hernández (November 10),
while still missing are Rafael Ortiz Martínez, Coahuila, who disappeared
on July 8, and Alfredo Jiménez Mota, whose whereabouts remain unknown
since April 2, 2005.
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