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 Excélsiors 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 IAPAs 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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