|
september 23, 2008
Miami, Florida, September 25, 2008
H.E. Fernando Lugo
President of Paraguay
Asunción, Paraguay
Mr. President,
Determined to put an end to impunity in crimes against journalists the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), in unison with the international community, calls your attention to the case of radio commentator Alberto Palma Godoy.
He was shot to death by two men disguised as soldiers who burst into his home in Mayor Otaño, Itapúa, on August 22, 2007 and riddled him with bullets in front of his family. Chilean-born Palma Godoy had been denouncing in his radio program politicians linked to fuel smuggling and drug trafficking.
Working as a journalist has become a high-risk profession in the region in exposing prevailing corruption and the organized crime behind it. There have been more 400 news men and women murdered, beaten up, made to disappear or forced into exile in the Americas in the last 18 years. The majority of such cases remain unsolved, and thus unpunished.
We call upon your good offices, Mr. President, to order the required action for police efforts to be redoubled so as to determine the whereabouts of brothers Favio and Nelson Vera Sanabria, accused of having carried out the murder and who are now at large, so that they may be brought to justice.
Sincerely,
|
