RAN 39/12 MEXICO: Web director murdered in Baja California

RAN 39/12 16 October 2012

The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International is shocked to learn that yet another journalist has been killed in Mexico. Tijuana Informativo director Ramón Abel López Aguilar was kidnapped in Tijuana, Baja California on 14 October 2012 and shot in the head. The WiPC calls for a thorough investigation into his murder and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Ramón Abel López Aguilar (53), director of the website Tijuana Informativo and photojournalist, was abducted by an armed group from his home in Tijuana, Baja California, on 14 October 2012. His body was found on a street in Tijuana the next morning; he died of a single gun shot to the head, according to the state attorney general’s office. The state authorities are reportedly investigating the murder, including the possibility that the shooting was related to his journalistic work.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to be a writer or journalist. Since 2000, over 80 writers, journalists and bloggers have been murdered and another 15 have disappeared. Most of these crimes have not been properly investigated and there have been only a handful of convictions.

The rate at which journalists are being killed has accelerated rapidly: since January 2012, nine print journalists and writers have been murdered in Mexico, including López Aguilar.

These include: investigative reporter Regina Martínez, journalist Marco Antonio Ávila García, poet and translator Guillermo Fernández García, journalist Raúl Régulo Garza Quirino and ex-reporter René Orta Salgado.

On 8 June, a journalist for the Coahuila-based newspaper Zócalo Saltillo, Stephanía Cardoso, disappeared with her two-year-old son.

On 12 June 2012, PEN International wrote an open letter to all journalists covering the G20 Summit in Mexico on 18-19 June. We asked them – in the course of their coverage of the event – to raise the issue of the attacks on journalists and writers, and the impunity enjoyed by those who commit these crimes.

PEN International is currently running Write Against Impunity 2012, a literary campaign to protest the attacks on writers and journalists in Mexico, Honduras and Brazil, and the state of impunity that exists for those who commit these crimes. For more information, see http://www.pen-international.org/write-against-impunity-2012/

Please send appeals:

• Calling for a full and impartial investigation into the death of editor and photojournalist Ramón Abel López Aguilar;
• Urging the Attorney General of the Republic to take up the case;
• Urging the Mexican authorities to do more to tackle the widespread local state corruption that slows and often prevents proper, objective investigations into the murders of writers and journalists;

Appeals to:

President Lic. Felipe De Jesús Calderón Hinojosa
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Alemán
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850, DISTRITO FEDERAL, México
Fax: (+ 52 55) 5093 4901/ 5277 2376
Email: felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx
Salutation: Señor Presidente/ Dear Mr PresidentAttorney General of the Republic
Lic. Marisela Morelos Ibáñez
Procuradora General de la República
Av. Paseo de Reforma No. 211-213, Piso 16
Col. Cuauhtémoc, Defegacion Cuauhtémoc
México D.F. C.P. 06500
Tel: + 52 55 5346 0108
Fax: + 52 55 53 46 0908 (if a voice answers, ask "tono de fax, por favor")
E-mail: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx
Salutation: Señora Procuradora General/Dear Attorney GeneralState Attorney General
Lic. Felipe Amadeo Flores Espinosa
Procurador General de Justicia
Cto. Rafael Guizar y Valencia No. 707
Col. Reserva Territorial, C.P. 91096
Xalapa, Veracruz, México
pgjver@pgjver.gob.mx
Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression
Lic. Laura Angelina Borbolla
Fiscal Especial para la Atención de Delitos Cometidos contra Periodistas (FEADP)
Email: feadp@pgr.gob.mxPlease also send copies of your appeals to the Mexican Embassy in your country.
See http://www.sre.gob.mx/acerca/directorio/embajadas/dirembajadas.htm

***Please send appeals immediately. Check with International PEN if sending appeals after 16 December 2012.***