IMPUNITY HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, PARAGUAY, PERU AND VENEZUELA
WHEREAS
journalist Germán
Antonio Rivas, reporter and managing owner of Corporación Maya Visión,
Canal 7, in Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras was murdered on November 26,
2003
WHEREAS
journalist Carlos Guadamuz of Canal 23 in Nicaragua was murdered on February
10, 2004 and the killer was arrested and convicted
WHEREAS
journalist Samuel Román of Ñu Verá radio in the municipality
of Capitán Bado, located in Paraguay on the border with Brazil, was murdered
on April 20, 2004
WHEREAS
in Peru, journalist Alberto Rivera Fernández of Radio Frecuencia Oriental
in Pucallpa was murdered on April 21, 2004, and Antonio de la Torre Echeandía
of Radio Orbita in Yungay was murdered on February 14 that same year
WHEREAS
Councilman and journalist Mauro Marcano of Radio Maturín in Maturín,
Monagas, Venezuela was murdered on September 1, 2004, and there as yet has been
no resolution of the murder of photojournalist Jorge Tortoza of the newspaper
2001, which took place on April 11, 2002 during a period of nationwide unrest
WHEREAS
Article 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states, “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 request
Honduran authorities not only identify the killers of Germán Antonio
Rivas but also capture and prosecute those who ordered the crime
to welcome
the sentencing of murderer of Carlos Guadamuz and to call for continuing the
investigations to identify those who ordered the crime
to urge the authorities in both Paraguay and Brazil to continue their inquiries
until both the perpetrators of the crime and those who ordered it are brought
to justice
to request
that Peruvian authorities pursue their inquiries into the murders of Rivera
Fernández and Torre Echeandía until the killers and those who
ordered them are brought to justice
to call
upon the Venezuelan authorities to continue investigating the murders of Marcano
and Tortoza until the guilty are brought to justice.