Mexico has a 91% impunity rate with regards to the attacks that, from the year 2000 until today, have been committed against journalists. Of the 143 cases that are documented, only in 12 has a sentence been passed, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) reported.
In Mexico, the CNDH has documented, from 2000 to today, 84 murders of journalists, and from 2005 to April 30, 2013, 20 disappearances of media employees, and, as well, 39 attacks against their facilities, according to a bulletin released this past Saturday.
The Attorney General of Mexico is the principal agency against which the most documented complaints have been presented before the CNDH for attacks against journalists. This is followed by the Federal Police, the Secretary of National Defense, the Attorney General of the state of Veracruz, and the Secretary of Government Relations, reported the organization.
The entities of the Mexican Republic where the majority of the attacks have occurred are Mexico City, Veracruz, Chiapas, Mexico State, and Chihuahua.
Facing this panorama, the CNDH urged the authorities of the three levels of government to “put effective actions into practice” to protect the work of the employees of the media.
“This national, autonomous organization calls for eradicating any manifestation of impunity and bringing to justice those who committed acts of aggression against communication professionals,” noted the CNDH.CNNMexico contacted the Secretary of Government Relations to ascertain the federal government’s stance with respect to the CNDH bulletin but did not receive an immediate response.
In May, Reporters Without Borders made public that in the past five years, 14 journalists had emigrated from the country after receiving death threats. Since December 2012, when President Enrique Peña Nieto took office, 36 aggressions against journalists or the media have been reported, according to the organization Freedom House.
The state of Veracruz has recorded more deaths of journalists from 2010 to today than other states. The murder of the correspondent of the weekly publication Proceso, Regina Martinez, [April 28, 2012] the third in one year, sparked the state’s national correspondents to leave, facing threats to their safety.
However, there have been more deaths and more cases that attracted national attention to the state. This past November, the governor, Javier Duarte, congratulated himself because his state was no longer bad news, when many journalists were in exile.
The results provided by the government for all of the murders of journalists has satisfied neither the media nor the defenders of freedom of expression. Among these cases were the murders of Milo Vela and Yolanda Díaz, both from Notiver.
In April, the body of photojournalist Daniel Alejandro Martinez Bazaldua, aged 22, who had worked for the newspaper Vanguardia del Saltillo was found in the Miravalle neighborhood in Coahuila. Spanish original