Pressure Mounts on
Honduras as Journalist Death Toll Rises
By Thelma Mejía
TEGUCIGALPA (IPS) - Honduran President
Porfirio Lobo plans to seek help from
police forces in Colombia and the United
States to try to solve the murders of
seven journalists committed in the space
of less than two months, which will also
be investigated by a delegation from the
Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights next month.
Jorge Orellana, popularly known as "Georgino",
was gunned down on Apr. 20, just a week
after radio announcer Luis Chévez met a
similar fate on Apr. 13.
Five fellow journalists -- Joseph Andoni
Hernández Ochoa, David Meza, Nahum
Palacios, José Bayardo Mairena and
Manuel Juárez -- were shot and killed in
March.
Five of the seven slain reporters worked
outside the capital. Bayardo Mairena and
Suárez were shot and killed in the
northeastern province of Olancho while
investigating a drug trafficking ring,
according to unofficial reports,
although the police have yet to comment
on the possible motives behind their
murders.
All of the journalists were killed in
drive-by shootings by unknown gunmen
riding on motorbikes, who fired on each
victim over a dozen times. According to
the police and the Observatory on
Violence, a joint initiative of the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
and the public National Autonomous
University of Honduras (UNAH), this is a
modus operandi typical of hired killers.
Orellana worked for a television station
in the northern Honduran city of San
Pedro Sula, 250 kilometres north of
Tegucigalpa, and also taught journalism
classes at UNAH.
His murder has stepped up local and
international pressure on Lobo, who
returned to Honduras on Wednesday from a
tour of the United States, where he
visited universities and met with
business leaders.
Lobo said Honduras would seek help from
other countries with greater experience
in criminal investigation to identify
the killers of the seven journalists. He
highlighted the work in this area of the
Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
in the United States.
Colombia, the other country where Lobo
plans to request assistance, has been
one of the world’s most dangerous
countries for journalists for decades,
and is currently engulfed in a scandal
over a state-run intelligence apparatus
set up to spy on and sabotage government
opponents, activists and journalists.
A delegation from the Washington-based
Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR) will arrive in Honduras
in the second week of May to investigate
the killings.
The delegation will also look into
reports of harassment and intimidation
made by members of the National Popular
Resistance Front, which headed up the
protests against the Jun. 28, 2009
overthrow of former president Manuel
Zelaya.
Added to these incidents are the death
threats received by Father Ismael
Moreno, a Jesuit priest, activist and
radio station director, for his
protection of a young woman reportedly
raped by police in August 2009 in the
midst of demonstrations against the
coup.
Moreno, the director of Radio Progreso
(based in the city of the same name) and
an outspoken opponent of the coup, was
spirited out of the country last
weekend, his Jesuit colleagues informed
IPS. The Jesuit community in Honduras
works primarily in the northern part of
the country.
Deputy Attorney General Ricardo
Rodríguez told IPS that all of these
incidents are being investigated, and
that his office is working with other
government agencies on a response to the
latest annual report from the IACHR,
which placed Honduras for the first time
ever on the list of countries where the
human rights situation "warranted
special attention" in 2009, alongside
Colombia, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela.
The report details the human rights
abuses committed in the aftermath of
Zelaya's ouster, including the climate
of threats and intimidation faced by the
country’s journalists.
"We have a month to respond to the
report, but if this mission comes in May
to investigate the killings of the
journalists, that's even better -- we
will cooperate and we will not hide
anything," said Rodríguez.
Minister of Security Óscar Álvarez
stated this week that the journalists’
murders were not connected to their
professional activity, but he did not
offer any other possible motives.
Speaking with IPS, Álvarez reiterated
this claim and urged journalists to "be
cautious," given the high level of
insecurity in the country, where an
average of 14 people meet with a violent
death every day. The majority of these
murders are attributed to drug
trafficking gangs.
Álvarez has been summoned to appear
before Congress next week to report on
the progress made so far in the
investigations.
The minister’s claims have been
challenged by the journalism community,
however.
This week, major media outlets launched
a campaign to pressure the government to
clear up the murders, while reporters
are collecting signatures through social
networking sites like Facebook and
Twitter for a petition condemning the
continued impunity enjoyed by the
killers and demanding transparency in
the investigation of the murders.
Elán Reyes, president of the
Journalists’ Association of Honduras,
condemned the killings but also called
for journalists to exercise caution and
"self-regulation". His comments were
harshly criticised as an implicit call
for self-censorship, although he denied
this interpretation.
Catalina Botero, Organisation of
American States Special Rapporteur for
Freedom of Expression, stated on Apr. 20
in San Salvador that Honduras is in a
state of "red alert" and described it as
one of the most dangerous countries in
the world to be a journalist today. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
