PEN International is deeply concerned by the disappearance of newspaper journalist Noel López Olguín, who was last seen in Jáltipan, Veracruz state, on March 8, 2011. It is feared that he has been abducted by an armed group with links to drugs trafficking, which is rife in Veracruz. López is the second print journalist to go missing in the state in a year, following the disappearance of Espacio editor Evaristo Ortega Zárate on April 20, 2010. A total of 10 print journalists have gone missing in Mexico since 2004 while 38 have been killed. PEN calls on the federal and state authorities to investigate López’s disappearance as a matter of the utmost urgency, and to bring the culprits to justice. It also calls on the authorities to implement the journalist protection mechanisms it promised in November 2010 immediately.

Background Information

The following is an excerpt from a press release by Reporters Without Borders dated March 25, 2011:

Reporters Without Borders is disturbed to learn that Noel López Olguín, a journalist based in the eastern state of Veracruz, has been missing for the past two and a half weeks. López works for the local weeklies Horizonte and Noticias de Acayucan and the daily La Verdad.
 
Gerardo Perdomo, the head of the Veracruz State Commission for the Defence of Journalists, told the press freedom organization that no one has heard from López since 8 March, when he set off for Soteapan, a town in the south of the state, to “sort out a problem” after getting a phone call.
 
His car was found on the road to Soteapan the next day but it contained no clues as to his whereabouts.
 
Various sources said he was probably kidnapped by an armed group. The fact that his family and colleagues refuse to talk about his disappearance, apparently for fear of reprisals, tends to confirm this hypothesis. Time is of the essence, and Reporters Without Borders urges the Veracruz authorities to assign all possible resources to the search for López.
 
Located on the Gulf of Mexico, Veracruz is a major transit point in the trafficking of drugs to the United States. The feared paramilitary group Los Zetas is reportedly very active in the area around Jáltipan, the town where López lives and works, which is located near Veracruz’s southern border with Oaxaca state. Abductions and murders are frequent there.
 
This area of Veracruz would be as good a place as any to start implementing the “protection mechanisms” for journalists promised by the federal government, which were agreed on at meeting organized by the interior ministry on 3 November 2010.
 
La Verdad reported on 25 February that two of its journalists – Fabián Antonio Santiago Hernández and his father, Margarito Santiago Pérez – had been kidnapped. They were fortunately released five hours later.
 
Veracruz already has two missing journalists. They are Evaristo Ortega Zárate, the editor of the Colipa-based weekly Espacio, missing since 19 April 2010, and Jesús Mejía Lechuga, an employer of radio MS-Noticias in Martínez de la Torre, missing since 10 July 2003.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Since January 2004, a total of 38 writers—36 print journalists and two writers—have been murdered, while 10 other print journalists have gone missing. Nine of the killings and three of the disappearances occurred in 2010 alone. Few if any of these crimes have been properly investigated or punished. PEN believes that it is likely that many of these writers were targeted in retaliation for their critical reporting, particularly on drug trafficking. While organized crime groups are responsible for many attacks, state agents, especially government officials and the police, are reportedly the main perpetrators of violence against journalists, and complicit in its continuance.

Write A Letter

  • Protesting the disappearance of newspaper journalist Noel López Olguín, last seen in Jáltipan, Veracruz state, on March 8, 2011;
  • Calling for a full and impartial investigation into his disappearance, with the involvement of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Journalists and Freedom of Expression, as well as into all other unsolved journalist disappearances and killings in Mexico;
  • Calling on the government of President Felipe Calderón to fulfill promises to make crimes against journalists a federal offense, specifically by amending the constitution so that federal authorities have the power to investigate, prosecute, and punish such crimes;
  • Calling on the federal authorities to implement the journalist protection mechanisms it promised in November 2010 immediately.

Send Your Letter To

Lic. Felipe De Jesús Calderón Hinojosa
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Alemán
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850, DISTRITO FEDERAL, México
Fax: (+ 52 55) 5093 4901/ 5277 2376
Email: [email protected]
Salutation: Señor Presidente/ Dear Mr President

Lic. Arturo Chávez Chávez
Procurador General de la República
Av. Paseo de Reforma No. 211-213, Piso 16
Col. Cuauhtémoc, Defegacion Cuauhtémoc
México D.F. C.P. 06500
Tel: + 52 55 5346 0108
Fax: + 52 55 53 46 0908
E-mail: [email protected]
Salutation: Señor Procurador General/ Dear Attorney General

Dr Gustavo Salas Chávez
Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Journalists
Fiscal Especial para la Atención de Delitos Cometidos contra Periodistas (FEADP)
Email: [email protected]

Please also send copies of your appeals to the diplomatic representative for Mexico in your country if possible.
 
Please contact PEN if sending appeals after May 28, 2011: ftw [at] pen.org