Press Freedom

Mexico November 1, 2006

Hon. Daniel F. Cabeza de Vaca Hernandez
Attorney General
Avenida Paseo de la Reforma #211-213
Mexico, D.F., C.P. 06500
Mexico

Dear Mr. Attorney General,
The death of Brad Will in Oaxaca brings to four the numbers of journalists killed this year in Mexico. It brings to roughly twenty the number killed in the last six years. We understand that none of these cases have been solved. But the killing of Brad Will took place on camera, as anyone with access to a computer can see.

While Mr. Will may have been primarily an activist and may have entered Mexico as a tourist, he did have press credentials. He was sending film and articles to the New York Independent Media Center, an on-line news organization. An attack on him is an attack on a free press (not that his death could be any more justified if Will were not a journalist).

Other journalists covering the confrontations in Oaxaca have been beaten and harassed by both demonstrators and by police and officials wearing civilian clothes. We are gratified that several people seen approaching with guns on the last film shot by Mr. Will have been identified and arrested, among them a policeman and an official of the PRI. We hope that now that there are suspects in hand, your special prosecutor for attacks on journalists, Sr. David Vega Vera, will see to it that the killing of Mr. Will does not become another unsolved murder of a journalist.

As an organization that has defended press freedom around the world for more than six decades, we of the Overseas Press Club of America are most concerned that our colleagues in Mexico can do their work free of
intimidation and the threat of death. We hope that with federal intervention in Oaxaca, calm returns to the city and that journalists will be able to go about their necessary business in safety.

Very truly yours,
Jeremy Main
Kevin McDermott
Freedom of the Press Committee

cc:

President Vicente Quesada Fox
Residencia Official de los Pinos
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec
11850 Mexico, D.F.
Mexico
Fax: (011.525) 515-5729

Carlos de Icaza
Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S.A.
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Fax: (202) 728-1698

Ambassador Enrique Beriuga
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations
2 United Nations Plaza, 28th floor
New York , NY 10017

Fax: (212) 688-8862

Antonio O. Garza, Jr.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Embassy of the United States of America
P.O. Box 9000
Brownsville , TX 78520
Fax: (011.525.55) 080-2005

Olga María del Carmen Sánchez C.
Ministra
Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación
Pino Súarez, No.2, Colonia Centro
México, D.F.
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, D.F.
México
Fax: (011.525.55) 522-0152

New York City Independent Media Center
4 West 43rd Street, Suite 311
New York, NY 10036

Patricia Mercado Sanchez
Editor
El Economista
Mexico, D.F.
Mexico
pmercado@economista.com.mx <mailto mercado@economista.com.mx&gt;

Leonardo Valero
Editor – International
La Reforma
Mexico, D.F.
Mexico
Leonardo.valero@reforma

Mr. Alberto Ibargüen
Miami Herald Publishing Company
One Herald Plaza
Miami, FL 33132

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

Sr. Ramón Darío Cantú Deándar
El Manana
Mexico, D.F.
Mexico
Fax: (011.525) 714-8797

Carmen <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carmen_Lira_Saade&action=edit> Lira Saade

La Jornada
Av. Cuauhtémoc 1236

<http://www.jornada.unam.mx/nuevo/publicidad.php>Col. Santa Cruz Atoyac
México, D.F., C.P. 03310
México

Lcda. Rosario Robles
Presidenta
Partido de la Revolución Democrática
Huatusco #37, 5o. piso
Col. Roma Sur
México, D.F.
Mexico
Fax: (011.525.55) 207-1200

Sr. David Vega Vera
Avenida Paseo de la Reforma #211-213
Mexico, D.F., C.P. 06500
Mexico