Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza
Attorney General
Avenida Paseo de la Reforma, Nos. 211-213
Mexico, DF, C.P. 06500
Mexico
Fax: (202) 728.1698
Dear Mr. Medina-Mora:
We write to applaud the evident determination of your office to find the killers of our colleague, Eliseo Barrón Hernández, murdered last week after being dragged from his home in Gómez Palacio. Barrón, as you must know, was at home with his wife and infant children on the evening of May 25th when eight armed men burst in. They beat him in front of his family before taking him away. The next day he was found in a roadside ditch in Durango, a gunshot wound to his head and his body bearing the marks of torture.
It is not hard to guess the motive for this cowardly, barbaric crime. Barrón was on the staff ofLa Opinión. In recent weeks, his reporting on a corruption scandal in the Torreón police department provoked the firing of three hundred two police officers. Twenty other officers are now under investigation.
Only last month, the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC), which has been defending the rights of journalists around the world for seventy years, hosted a crowded conference on the multiple threats to Mexican journalists covering the drug trade. The packed house was indicative of our profession’s concern for Mexican colleagues, especially in the northern states where the choices boil down to cooption by the drug cartels or the daily risk of death for honest reporting.
As we do not need to tell you, Mr. Medina-Mora, Mexico is now among the world’s most dangerous places for honest reporters. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, twenty seven reporters have been killed since 2000, including Barrón. At least eight were murdered in direct reprisal for their work. In addition, seven journalists have disappeared since 2005. Most of the journalists included in these numbers covered organized crime or government corruption.
Reporters like Barrón are the treasures of a democracy. The announcement of a 5 million peso reward for information leading to the arrest of his killers is a hugely important sign of Mexico’s determination to protect the rule of law and the chroniclers of those who would defy it.
Very truly yours,
Larry Martz
Kevin McDermott
Co-chairmen – Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
H.E. Felipe Calderon
President
Residencia Official de los Pinos
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec
11850 Mexico, DF
Mexico
Fax: (011.52.5) 515.5729
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
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 Representative
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 of America
P.O. Box 9000
Brownsville, TX 78520
Fax: (011.52.55) 5080.2005
Lcda. Rosario Robles
Presidenta
Partido de la Revolución Democrática
Huatusco # 37, 5o. piso
Col. Roma Sur
México, D.F.
Fax: (011.52.55) 5207.1200
New York City Independent Media Center
4 West 43rd Street, Suite 311
New York, NY 10036
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
alfredo_corchado@harvard.edu
Jorge Luis Sierra
jlsierrag@yahoo.com