Urgent Action: AMARC Condemns Murder of two Community Radio Journalists in Mexico

Urgent Action

AMARC Condemns Murder of two Community Radio Journalists in Mexico

Mexico April 8, 2008, Two Journalists of the Community Radio La Voz que Rompe el Silencio in the neibourghood of San Juan Copala, Oaxaca (southest of Mexico), Felicitas Martínez Sánchez, 21 years old and Teresa Bautista Merino, 24 years died from bullet impacts while travelling in the highway from Joya del Mamey to Putla de Guerrero in the State of Oaxaca. Another four people were wounded on April 7, 2008.

The Community Radio La Voz que Rompe el Silencio is broadcasting since January 2007. This communication project is formed mainly by youngsters and adolescents from Trique indigenous people present in the region. The Community Radio Journalists Teresa Bautista Merino and Felicitas

Martínez Flores and two minors in their way to their community, after having participated in a meeting with the local population of Llano Juárez inviting them to participate in the radio station.

In the highway they were attacked apparently to be kidnapped, under the armed attack they lost the control of the vehicle. The aggression resulted in the death of the Journalists Teresa Bautista and Felicitas Martínez, and left wounded by bullets the couple formed by Faustino and Cristina with their two daughters. In the site of the aggression there were 20, 7.62 calibre cartridges used in assault AK-47 rifles, weapons normally reserved to use by the Army.

The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters condemns the murder of the two community radio journalists and we demand

1. Clarification on the events that took place on 8 April 2008 on the highway to San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, which resulted in the murder of Teresa Bautista Merino and Felicitas Martínez Sánchez, journalists of the community radio station La Voz que Rompe el Silencio.

2. Punishment of the masterminds of the crime and its material perpetrators who took these journalists' lives.

3. Protection of the lives and physical safety of the survivors - Faustino Vázquez Martínez, Cristina Martínez Flores and their two children - who are key witnesses to the event, as well as the lives and physical safety of the other members of the radio station.

4. An end to the climate of impunity that is allowing such acts of aggression, disappearances and murders to continue to be committed against members of community media, as well as journalists and media outlets in general, which is making Mexico the continent's most dangerous country in which to work as a journalist (see: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025 )

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Send communications asking for prompt clarification of the murders, punishment of those responsible and protection for the witnesses and their children

Felipe Calderón Hinojosa

(President)

Tel: +52 55 5093 5300

E-mail: felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx

Juan Camilo Mouriño Terrazo

(Chief of the Office of the President)

Tel: +52 55 5093 3400

Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza

(Attorney General)

Tel: +52 55 5346 0114 / 5346 0115

E-mail: yess@pgr.gob.mx

Ulises Ruiz Ortiz

(Oaxaca Governor)

Tel: +52 951 502 05 30

E-mail: gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx

José Luis Soberanes

(President of the National Human Rights Commission)

Tel: +52 55 1719 2000, x 8293 y 8280

C. Octavio Alberto Orellana Wiarco

(Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Journalists)

Fax: +52 55 5346 43 70

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.

For further information, contact Gustavo Gómez, Director, Communication Rights and Legislation Programme, AMARC Latin America and the Caribbean (AMARC-LAC), Luis de la Peña 484 Ap.2, 11900 Montevideo, Uruguay, tel: +598 2 309 2824, +598 99 660373, e-mail: gusgomez@chasque.apc.org, Internet: http://legislaciones.amarc.org