Press Freedom

Mexico May 3, 2012

H.E. Felipe Calderon
President
Residencia Official de los Pinos
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec
1850 Mexico, DF
Government of Mexico
Fax: (011.52.5) 515.5729

Your Excellency:

We write you with grave concern over the murder of investigative reporter, Regina Martinez Perez, whose beaten body was found at her home in the city of Xalapa, the capital of the State of Veracruz, on April 26, 2012. According to news reports, Perez had been strangled. Perez’s killing follows that of 3 other Mexican journalists over the last year, whose assailants, as we have sadly come to expect, have never been charged.

Perez had covered the drug cartels and organized crime for the national magazine, Proceso, for more than a decade. She was well known for her courageous work in linking gangs and crime to Mexican government officials. She had reported on the arrest of nine police officers involved with a drug cartel, as well as the arrest of an alleged leader of the Zetas, one of the most powerful national drug syndicates, just a week before her murder. According to sources quoted by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Perez had specialized in thorough coverage that did not shy away from naming officials involved with the gangs.

As you know, legislation that would make it a Federal crime to kill a journalist has been moving through Mexican states for ratification. While it is important to pass this legislation, there should be no reason for your office to forestall a Federal investigation immediately instead of leaving Perez’s murder up to slow-moving and perhaps compromised state and local officials. Unlike the murder of Raúl Régulo Garza Quirino, who was shot dead on 6 January in a possible case of mistaken identity, there seems strong evidence that Perez was killed because of her powerful exposes.

Overseas Press Club of America members are heartened by your efforts, at long last, to institutionalize the murder of a journalist as a crime against the Mexican people, with the passage of just such a law through the Mexican Senate.

But as long as drug gang members and corrupt government officials know that they can still get away with killing a reporter without any personal costs, the effort to silence brave voices will not stop.

We urge you to bring the full weight of Federal law enforcement into arraigning the killers of Perez and bringing them to swift prosecution.

Respectfully yours,

Robert Dowling
Larry Martz
Freedom of the Press Committee

cc:

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

Maria Otero
Under Secretary of State for Democracy
and Global Affairs
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520

Olga María del Carmen Sánchez
Ministra
Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación
Pino Súarez, No. 2
Colonia Centro, México, DF
Government of 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
Government of 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. Anthony Wayne
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Embassy of the United States of America
P.O. Box 9000
Brownsville, TX 78520
Fax: (011.52.55) 50.80.20.05

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