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june 25, 2009
H.E. Alvaro Uribe Vélez
President of Colombia
Nariño Palace
Bogotá
Colombia
Dear Mr. President,
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has investigated the cases of the murder of journalists committed in the Americas in which there have been delays in bringing the guilty to justice, as well as irregularities in the process. In the majority of the cases police and other official inquiries have been inexplicably stalled, which has prevented those responsible for the crimes being identified and charged.
The IAPA, determined to see an end to such impunity, a task in which it has the wide support of the international community, takes the liberty of calling your attention to the death of Flavio Iván Bedoya Sarriá, correspondent in Tumaco, Nariño, of the weekly Voz Proletaria.
Bedoya was killed on April 27, 2001. Now, eight years after the crime, the investigation remains at the preliminary stage. According to the Attorney General’s Office evidence gathered in an attempt to identify the culprits has produced no result.
We would request, Mr. President, your intervention to ensure that the proceedings do not stop until all those responsible for this crime are punished. Only in that way will the death of Bedoya Sarriá not become just one more statistic in the list of unsolved murders in the Americas, in particular in Colombia.
Sincerely,
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