TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS BELOW:
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)
International Solidarity Network
Urgent Action Alert
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The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, Article 19, and
Reporters Without Borders condemn the murder of two community journalists in
Clarification of the events that occurred on April 8th of this year, on the
highway to San Juan Copala,
Punishment of all those responsible for the murder of these journalists.
The guaranteed safety of the surviving victims, Faustino Vázquez Martínez,
Cristina Martínez Flores and her two sons, who witnessed the events, as well as
the guaranteed safety of everyone else working at the community radio station.
An end to the impunity that allows the ongoing repression, disappearances, and
murders of journalists and mediamakers in general, and which makes
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Recommended Action:
Send emails or faxes, or make phone calls demanding the immediate investigation
of the murders, punishment of those responsible, and guaranteed safety for the
witnesses and their children.
Felipe Calderón Hinojosa
[log in to unmask]
011 52 (55) 5093- 5300 / Fax: 5093-4901
Juan Camilo Mouriño Terrazo
[log in to unmask]
011 52 (55) 5093-3400
Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza
[log in to unmask]
011 52 (55) 5346 0114 / (55) 5346 0115 / Fax: 5346 0908
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
[log in to unmask]
011 52 (951) 502 05 30 / Fax: (951) 502 05 31
C. Octavio Alberto Orellana Wiarco
Fiscal Especial para la Atención de Delitos Cometidos contra Periodistas
Fax 011 52 55 53 46 43 70
Gustavo Gómez
Director Programa de Legislaciones y Derecho a la Comunicación
AMARC-ALC
April 7th, 2008.
Two indigenous triqui women who worked at the community radio station La Voz
que Rompe el Silencio (The Voice that Breaks the Silence), in the autonomous
municipality of San Juan Copala (Mixteca region), were shot and murdered while
on their way to Oaxaca city to participate in the State Forum for the Defense
of the Rights of the Peoples of Oaxaca. Three other people were injured.
According to the State Attorney General, the victims are Teresa Bautista Merino
(24 years old) and Felícitas Martínez Sánchez (20 years old).
Francisco Vásquez Martínez (30 years old), his wife Cristina Martínez Flores
(22 years old), and their son Jaciel Vásquez Martínez (three years old) were
also injured in the attack.
According to prelimary reports, the women had left the station, which is part
of the Network of Indigenous Community Radio Stations of the Southeast (Red de
Radios Comunitarias Indígenas del Sureste), around 1:00 PM. They were
travelling in a truck on their way to
The two community radio activists were supposed to coordinate the working group
for Community and Alternative Communication: Community Radio, Video, Press, and
Internet, at the State Forum for the Defense of the Rights of the People of
Oaxaca, which was to begin the today (Wednesday) in the auditorium of Seccion
22 of the teachers union in
The Center for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS as the spanish
acronym) released a communique denouncing the murders and demanding that the
state authorities investigate and punish those responsible for the crime.
The state attorney general said that 20 bullet shells, caliber 7.62, were found
at the site of the murders, along with other arms including an AK-47.
People are encouraged to contact their local embassies and consulates (or to
organize demonstrations at their local embassies and consulates) to express
their condemnation of this paramilitary repression of indigenous women and community
media projects.