FNS News: Too Young to Die: Mexican Journalists in 2008

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On 4/19/08, fnsnews@... wrote:

April 19, 2008

Human Rights News

Mexican Journalists Still Under Siege in 2008

Despite the creation of a special federal prosecutor and protests from
virtually all international press organizations, new attacks against
journalists in Mexico continue to mount while old ones go
unpunished. Two
young radio announcers from the southern state of Oaxaca are the
latest
journalists to suffer violent deaths. Felicitas Martinez, 22, and
Teresa
Bautista, 24, were shot to death in an ambush April 7 while on
their way
to cover a state meeting of indigenous peoples. Four other persons
were
wounded in the attack, including two young children aged 2 and 3.
As of
April 19, no suspects had been arrested for the crimes.

Indigenous Triquis, Martinez and Bautista were announcers for the "The
Voice that Breaks the Silence" community radio station in San Juan
Copala,
a town which has enjoyed autonomous status since early 2007.
Outspoken
commentators in a region riddled with social conflicts, Martinez and
Bautista allegedly suffered threats before their murders. "Some people
think we are very young to know, but they should know we are very
young to
die," Martinez and Bautista reportedly said on the air shortly before
their deaths.

Alfonso Ortiz, radio station coordinator, blamed a group connected
with
the PRI state government of Ulises Ruiz for the killings of his
colleagues. Ortiz also accused the state government of attempting
to bribe
family members of Martinez and Bautista into silence. Oaxaca State
Secretary Manuel Garcia Corpus, who earlier met with the victims'
survivors, said a truce was necessary between warring political
factions
in the region.

Oaxaca State Attorney General Evencio Martinez (no known relation
to the
victim) said the radio announcers were in the wrong place at the wrong
time. "What's clear from the preliminary investigation is that the
attack
wasn't against them, but against the person who was driving the
vehicle,"
Martinez said. The presumed target of the attack, in the state
attorney
general's view, was Faustino Vasquez, a local government employee
who was
hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his left arm.

Earlier, the San Juan Copala radio station demanded that Mexico's
Office
of the Federal Attorney General take over the murder investigation.

The Martinez-Bautista murders were condemned by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN
High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Mexican Episcopal Conference and
the World
Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), among other
organizations.

AMARC representative Aleida Calleja said Mexico was already dangerous
territory for communicators but that the murders of the two young
indigenous women "added to it." In a statement, the UN's human rights
ombudsman contended that "only through the effective
clarification" of the
Martinez-Bautista slayings will similar attacks against
journalists and
social communicators be prevented.

Mexico´s official human rights commission is investigating the Oaxaca
murders, while the AMARC has announced it will dispatch an
international
investigative delegation to the country between April 21-25.

In northern Mexico, another media outlet has also suffered
aggressions.
Readers of the daily El Cinco newspaper in Ciudad Victoria,
Tamaulipas,
have had a difficult time getting the news lately because of an
escalating
wave of intimidation that culminated April 16 in the kidnapping of the
paper's pressman by alleged members of the Tamaulipas state police
force.
Quoted in the Apro news service, El Cinco's management added that
other
workers were threatened with guns. Copies of the paper which
managed to
make it onto the streets were then reportedly bought out by unnamed
individuals offering higher-than-normal prices to vendors. There
was no
immediate word of the fate of the kidnapped pressman. Prior to the
armed
invasion of the printing facility, editions of the newspaper had
allegedly been confiscated by state policemen at different
intersections
in Ciudad Victoria.

In the northern Mexican border community of Agua Prieta, Sonora,
meanwhile, about 60 friends and relatives of murdered journalist
Saul Noe
Martinez staged a protest last week on the first anniversary of his
killing, which like the vast majority of murders of journalists in
Mexico
remains unsolved. The editor of Interdiario, Martinez was
kidnapped from
an Agua Prieta police station by armed gunmen; his body was later
found in
the neighboring state of Chihuahua. Demonstrators demanded the
speeding up
of the murder investigation, and that Martinez's name be cleared of
allegations that cocaine was found along with his body. According to
Martinez's supporters, the substance in question was rat poison.

Speaking out on the Oaxaca murders, UNESCO General Director Koichiro
Matsuura called the killings of journalists "an odious crime that
causes
great damage to society, since it suffocates the democratic right
of the
citizens to debate issues of common interest…"


Sources: Aguas/EFE, April 18, 2008. Proceso/Apro, April 17 and 19,
2008.
Articles by Pedro Matias. Cimacnoticas, April 17 and 18, 2008.
Articles by
Soledad Jarquin Edgar, Susana Trejo de Jesús and Jessica Cecilia
Martinez.
Pagina 24/Apro, April 17, 2008. CNN en Español/Aristegui, April
16, 2008.
La Jornada, April 9, 12 and 17, 2008. Articles by Matilde Perez U.,
Carolina Gomez, Ulises Gutierrez, Emir Olivares, Octavio Velez,
and the
AFP news agency.


Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

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