CNDH: Violence Against Journalists Will Continue

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Proceso

                                                            Luis Raul Gonzalez Perez
CNDH Ombudsman: "Violence against journalists will continue as long as the killers remain free".

By: Gloria Leticia Diaz May 15, 2018

Mexico City - AP ; The president of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), Luis Raúl González Pérez, condemned the killing of journalist Juan Carlos Huerta, and warned that while "those responsible are not in jail" the spiral of violence against the union "has the risk of continuing".

Interviewed at the end of the inauguration of the international forum "American Declaration of Rights and Duties of Man, First International Instrument for Human Rights", González Pérez stressed that with the death of Huerta - occurred this morning in Villahermosa, Tabasco - add 134 reporters killed in the last 18 years.

After highlighting that in the last three years of Enrique Peña Nieto's government "violence against journalists has been sustained", the ombudsman regretted that the murder occurred just on the first anniversary of the murder of Javier Valdez, correspondent of La Jornada in Sinaloa and founder of local newspaper Ríodoce .

                                                                              Javier

The president of the CNDH recalled that in February 2016 issued the general recommendation number 24 related to attacks on journalists, which was taken to the National Conference of Governors (Conago), where the leaders committed to "assume it as public policy" .

In a statement, the agency announced that it sent deputy visitors to the state of Tabasco to support the Huerta family, and requested the government of Arturo Núñez precautionary measures to safeguard the life and safety of the journalist's relatives.

                                                                        Juan Carlos

In the same way, it demanded from the competent authorities "a prompt and integral investigation that prevents this case from remaining in impunity, an investigation that must necessarily consider as one of its lines the one linked to the journalistic work carried out by the victim".

The organism pointed out that since 2000 the majority of journalists' crimes "remain unpunished, so the CNDH strongly calls for the protection schemes for journalists and human rights defenders to be reviewed and updated, as well as for instances in charge of the investigation of these cases assume the clarification of them as a priority ".

For his part, José Antonio Lara Duque, president of the Center for Human Rights "Zeferino Ladrillero" (CDHZL), warned that the crisis of violence against journalists and human rights defenders in Mexico could intensify.

                                                                         Miroslava

After knowing the murder of Juan Carlos Huerta in Tabasco, Lara Duque said that this situation - unpublished in Mexico - could increase exponentially in the framework of the next elections in our country.

According to the lawyer, the climate of impunity and insecurity is increasing in almost all the national territory, against the journalistic activity and the defenders of the individual guarantees, since the murder of Juan Carlos Huerta is the fourth one that registered in 2018 in our country.

"There are 43 journalists killed during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto and it is number 116 since Mexico experienced a change in its regime with the entry into the presidency of the Republic of Vicente Fox Quesada through the National Action Party (PAN).

                                                                           Max

"Particularly this May 15 is when it is one year since the murder of the writer and journalist Javier Valdez in Sinaloa, and within the framework of a day that takes place around the world to remember the importance of professional journalism" .

He continued: "Mexico is experiencing a crisis of unprecedented violence against indigenous peoples, indigenous communities, journalists and defenders of human rights, derived from the neoliberal policies imposed in the last decades."

Lara Duque recalled the words of Jan Jarab, representative in Mexico of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OACNUDH), within the framework of political campaigns: that the atmosphere of violence could increase as a result of its magnitude and the political culture of our country.

                                                                            Adan

He explained that the construction of mega-projects (highly polluting of our environment), the exacerbated violence against women, the constant criminalization of the organization and social protest, as well as the armed intervention of the State in the territories, has left hundreds of people disappeared, imprisoned or killed by members of paramilitary groups.

                                                                             Lupe

Similarly, he added, the commercialization, the annihilation of culture and historical memory, as well as the precarization of employment, social-territorial exclusion, lack of access to justice and access to basic rights such as decent housing, water, electricity and medical services have plunged the country into a spiral of violence.

                                                             Mega Mine Development

"We are not going to stop our social work until the aggressions on the part of the State stop and the systematic and permanent attacks against our territories, our resources and our life, the profit and the barbarism that neoliberal capitalism represents," he said.

                                                               Mega Dam Development

He also accused the State's intention "to shield itself through the deployment of repressive laws such as the Eruviel Law and the new Law of Internal Security, to legitimize the deployment of the use of physical force in cases of protests and popular demonstrations; to hurt or kill us and, even then, go unpunished. "

                                                                Indigenous Wixarika

He added: "It is urgent to have a comprehensive protocol (administrative, legislative, judicial) of protection for defenders (meaning any person acting in the defense of human rights in a broad and peaceful sense, without needing to be attached to a organization or association, or previous professional studies) that has as purpose to avoid the possible aggression or criminalization of the State ".

He also made it clear that the fight for our human rights is everybody's job, and "only together and organized can we win the battle in the face of so much violence, insecurity and impunity. The road to that horizon of community and prosperity is, then, something that we will have to continue building hand in hand, "he concluded.