A year after Mexico’s commitments at the UN, violence against journalists and impunity continue unabated


H.E. Sr. Fernando Francisco Gómez-Mont Urueta
Minister of the Interior
Secretario de Gobernación
Bucareli 99, 1er. piso, Col. Juárez
Del. Cuauhtémoc, México D.F., C.P.06600, MEXICO
Fax: +52 55 5093 3414
Email: secretario@segob.gob.mx  

19 January 2010

Dear Minister,

I write to you as Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN, the global writers' association with 145 centres in 104 countries, to express PEN's deep concern about the extreme violence faced by print journalists in Mexico and the almost complete impunity that surrounds the all too frequent murders, disappearances and other attacks on this group. We know that these are concerns you share, given the commitments made by you, as representative of the Mexican government, during the review of the country's human rights record at the 4th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva on 10 February 2009.

During the UPR session you signalled Mexico's willingness to implement the majority of the recommendations made by other member states, including a number relating to journalists and freedom of expression, as follows:

PEN applauds the Mexican government's cooperation with the UPR process and its stated readiness to tackle the situation faced by journalists in the country. However, one year after these commitments were made, PEN is alarmed by the apparent lack of progress in working towards their fulfilment. In particular, we would like to point out that that since the UPR session in February 2009, eight print journalists have been murdered in Mexico and one more has disappeared.

The murdered journalists are as follows: Carlos Ortega Samper (3 May 2009, Durango state); Eliseo Barrón Hernández (25 May 2009, Durango); Martín Javier Miranda Avilés (12 July 2009, Michoacán); Ernesto Montañez Valdivia (14 July 2009, Chihuahua); Norberto Miranda Madrid (23 September 2009, Chihuahua); José Bladimir Antuna García (2 November 2009, Durango); Alberto Velázquez López (22 December 2009, Quintana Roo); and Valentín Valdés Espinosa (7-8 January 2010, Coahuila). The journalist who has disappeared is María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe (11 November 2009, Michoacán).

We note that a number of these journalists had been threatened prior to their murder or disappearance and yet apparently none had been offered police protection or other measures to ensure their safety. To our knowledge, none of these crimes have been solved or the perpetrators brought to justice. Moreover, the 20 other murders and five other disappearances of writers and print journalists between 2004 and 2008 also remain unresolved. This shocking impunity sends a clear message to those who kill and attack journalists that they will not be punished.

PEN believes that it is likely that many of these journalists were targeted in retaliation for their critical reporting, particularly on drug trafficking. It also understands that while organised crime groups are responsible for some attacks, state agents, especially government officials and the police, are thought to be the main perpetrators of violence against journalists, and complicit in its continuance.

Finally, we understand that the plans to give the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Journalists power to investigate and prosecute have yet to materialize. The same is true of the pledge to make the investigation of attacks on freedom of expression a federal rather than state issue, which we believe was first made in 2008.

In light of the above, the WiPC urgently seeks assurances that the Mexican government intends to honour the commitments it made in Geneva last year. We would welcome information on the steps that it has taken and plans to take as well as details of any progress made in the investigations into the murders and disappearances of the journalists listed above.

I thank you in advance for your attention and assistance in these matters and look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,


Marian Botsford Fraser
Chair, Writers in Prison Committee, International PEN

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