Press Freedom

Mexico June 22, 2011

H.E. Felipe Calderon
President
Residencia Official de los Pinos
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec
11850 Mexico, DF
Mexico
Fax: (011.52.5) 515.5729

Your Excellency:

We write to express our horror at Monday’s callous slaughter of the prominent Veracruz columnist Miguel Ángel López Velasco, along with his wife, Agustina Solano de López, and their 21-year-old son Misael.  The three were killed by assailants who broke down the door of Lopez Valasco’s home at 5:30 a.m.

A motive for the murders has not been determined, but Lopez Velasco’s role as editorial director of the newspaper Notiver made him a prominent figure and possible target. Under the pseudonym Milo Vela, Lopez Velasco, 55, also wrote a regular column called “Va de Nuez” that focused on local government corruption, drug trafficking and crime.  He had been one of the best known columnists in the state of Veracruz for many years, according to Gerardo Perdomo, president of a state commission charged with defending journalists.  Lopez Velasco’s son had been working as a photographer for Notiver.

Your Excellency, you have repeatedly promised action to end the horrific violence against journalists that has made Mexico one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media.  Eight months have passed since you pledged, at a meeting with our colleagues from the Committee to Protect Journalists, to protect journalists in Mexico and said you would make the right of free expression a priority of your government.  Since you made that promise, at least five media workers have been killed, while others have been beaten, threatened with death, driven into exile, kidnapped, and disappeared.

We honor your courage and determination to end this plague, but we would also welcome results.

Respectfully,
Larry Martz                                                     
Kevin McDermott       
Co-chairmen, Freedom of the Press Committee

cc:

H.E. Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana
Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S.A.
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC  20006
Fax: (202) 728.1698

Ambassador Claude Heller
Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations
2 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 688.8862

H.E. Antonio O. Garza, Jr.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Embassy of the United States
P.O. Box 9000
Brownsville, TX  78520
Fax: (011.52.55) 5080.2005

Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza
Attorney General
Avenida Paseo de la Reforma, Nos. 211-213
Mexico, DF, C.P. 06500
Mexico
Fax: (202) 728.1698

Olga María del Carmen Sánchez
Ministra
Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación
Pino Súarez, No.2
Colonia Centro, México, DF
México
Fax: (011.525.55) 522.0152

Genaro David Góngora Pimentel
Ministro Presidente
Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación
Pino Súarez, No.2
Colonia Centro, México, DF
México
Fax: (011.525.55) 522.0152

Lcda. Rosario Robles, Presidenta
Partido de la Revolución Democrática
Huatusco # 37, 5o. piso
Col. Roma Sur, México, DF
Mexico
Fax: (011.52.55) 5207.1200

Patricia Mercado Sanchez, Editor
El Economista
Mexico, DF
Mexico
pmercado@economista.com.mx

Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz
El Universal of Mexico City
Bucareli N° 8, Col. Centro
Delegación Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06040
México

Ramón Darío Cantú Deándar
El Maòana
Mexico
Fax: (011.52.5) 714.8797

Alfredo Corchado
The Dallas Morning News
acorchado@dallasnews.com

Jorge Luis Sierra
jlsierrag@yahoo.com

Robert Rivard
Editor
San Antonio Express-News
P.O. Box 2171
San Antonio, TX  78297