[cma-l] Mexico - community radio presenters murdered

[Steve Buckley]

(ARTICLE 19/CENCOS/IFEX) - Two announcers of La Voz que Rompe el 
Silencio community radio station, which is based in San Juan Copala, 
Oaxaca state, in southeast Mexico, were shot dead when traveling on the 
highway connecting Joya del Mamey to Putla de Guerrero, two settlements 
in Oaxaca. Dead are Felicitas Martinez Sachez, 21, and Teresa Bautista 
Merino, 24. Four other people were wounded.

According to information released by the Centro de Apoyo Comunitario 
Trabajando Unidos A.C. (CACTUS) - a civil society organisation that 
works in the area, the ambush took place between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. 
(local time) on 7 April 2008. According to media reports, the police 
found at least 20 spent AK-47 bullet cartridges at the scene of the crime.

La Voz que Rompe el Silencio has been broadcasting since January 2007, 
the date of the first anniversary of the declaration of the autonomous 
municipality of Copala. The majority of the people involved in the 
project are young adults and teenagers from the Triqui indigenous community.

CACTUS human rights work coordinator Omar Esparza indicated that "the 
group had gone out to do reporting and interview people. They were 
indigenous reporters carrying out a task assigned by the community 
authorities."

"It's a pity that no one paid attention to the complaints we had been 
making about the critical situation in the region for the last five 
months," Esparza added.

The region has been wracked by intense political confrontations, 
especially since the Triqui people's authorities and organisations 
declared the creation of an autonomous region of San Juan Copala, 350 
kilometers from Oaxaca's capital, in January 2007.

This attack comes in the wake of a long list of attacks on journalists 
in Oaxaca, which highlights the unsafe conditions in which they are 
obliged to exercise their rights to free expression and press freedom. 
Community radio stations are at particular risk, as demonstrated by the 
previous assaults on members of Radio Nandia and Radio Calenda radio 
stations, also based in Oaxaca. The attacks on both of those radio 
stations and their staff are still unpunished.

ARTICLE 19 and CENCOS once again respectfully urge the Mexican state to 
take every measure, both legislative and political, to ensure both the 
physical safety and freedom from legal harassment of people exercising 
their rights to free expression and press freedom, in accordance with 
the state's international obligations and international human rights 
standards.

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/76738

For further information on the Radio Nandia case,
see: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/76738

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/80743

For further information on the Radio Calenda
case, see:

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/80743

MORE INFORMATION:

For further information, contact Ricardo Gonzalez, programme officer for 
ARTICLE 19, tel: +52 55 1054 6500, e-mail: ricardo at article19.org
Omar Rabago, research and education section of CENCOS, tel: +52 55 5533 
6475, ext 108, e-mail: mailto:omar.rabago at cencos.org
or Francisco Barron Trejo, Communications coordinator, or Brisa Maya 
Sol=EDs Ventura, Executive Director, CENCOS, Medell=EDn 33, Colonia
Roma, 06700 Mexico, D.F., Mexico, tel: +52 55 55 336 475 / 55 336 476, 
fax: +52 55 52 082 062,
e-mail: cencos at cencos.org
Internet: http://www.cencos.org