Midyear Meeting
Cartagena de índias, Colombia
March 16 - 19, 2007
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GUATEMALA
Midyear Meeting
Cartagena de índias, Colombia
March 16 - 19, 2007
WHEREAS
in Guatemala there are groups that conduct illegal operations within the National Civil Police and part of this structure was disclosed March 8 in a report published in elPeriódico saying that the brothers José Luis and Henry Benítez are part of the group that was involved in a raid in the Pavón prison during which seven prisoners died
WHEREAS
on March 15, the brothers José Luis and Henry Benítez, who identify themselves as advisers to the National Civil Police, filed a complaint against José Rubén Zamora, publisher of elPeriódico, and the managing editor, Ana Carolina Alpírez, accusing them of instigating threats against them and attempts to kill them, and asked that they be sentenced to 50 years in prison and the death penalty, after an alleged attack on them, they said, because of what was published in elPeriódico
WHEREAS
Edwin Sperissen, director of the National Civil Police has blamed elPeriódico for the alleged attack on his advisers following the report’s publication
WHEREAS
journalist Ángel Sas was attacked on March 18 when a group of assailants opened fire on him in an attempt to kill him, after he had reported on illegal groups operating within the National Police
WHEREAS
Principle 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 MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES
to ask the Public Ministry to reject the complaint made by the advisers to the National Civil Police, since it is baseless, and to conduct an expert inquiry about the alleged attack to establish the origin of the events
to ask the Guatemalan government, especially President Oscar Berger and Minister Carlos Vielmann to guarantee the security of journalists who report on these cases and to respect free expression of ideas which is threatened by this type of complaint
to demand that the Guatemalan government respect the rule of law and enforce the law.
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