A white plaque near Villa Ygatimí, about 26 miles from the Paraguayan border with Brazil, commemorates a journalist and an assistant killed while driving on a dirt highway there a year earlier.
“Those who had the privilege of knowing them knew that they were very special people, martyrs of the truth and silenced by the mafia. They were always willing to help and we are left with many good lessons. The void that we are left with is full of blessings and their examples guide us always on the path of good. Their memories will remain forever in our hearts.”
Journalist Pablo Medina and assistant Antonia Almada, 19, were killed on Oct. 16, 2014 while on a return trip from the Ko’ê Porã indigenous community outside Curuguaty, Paraguay.
Colleagues marked the one year anniversary of their deaths online and in-person, calling for investigation of the crime and punishment for the perpetrators in addition to protection for those still in the field.
Journalists from around the world took pictures and filmed videos calling for an end to impunity for murders of journalists in Paraguay. The hashtags #OneYearWithoutPablo and #JusticeForPablo filled social media sites.
ABC Color, the newspaper for which Medina worked, published multiple stories on the status of the investigation into their colleague’s death and of continued domination of drug trafficking in Canindeyú. The paper also invited students to their offices to view an exhibit of Medina’s photos.
Mediaworkers in Ciudad del Este honored Medina in a demonstration with posters and candles in front of the offices of Vanguardia newspaper.
Family and friends gathered in the plaza “34 Curuguateños” in Curuguaty for mass and remembrance of Medina. City councilors there later approved a motion to name a neighborhood plaza after Medina.
Colleagues planted trees in Asunción that “symbolized the life and legacy of the journalist who was killed because of his publications that stripped the impunity of criminal gangs dedicated to drug trafficking in the department of Canindeyú,” as the Forum of Paraguayan Journalists (FOPEP for its acronym in Spanish) posted on its Facebook page.
Journalists gathered to remember Medina and Almada at a seminar on “Freedom of expression in Paraguay and the threat of narcopolitics,” sponsored by FOPEP and the Paraguayan Journalists Union (SPP for its acronym in Spanish). They talked about the “necessity of creating a commission to monitor the growing presence of narcopolitics in public power,” reported E’a.
A day later, SPP secretary general Santiago Ortiz “urged authorities and media companies to provide necessary security measures for journalist working in high-risk areas or who research activities linked to organized crime,” according to E’a.
The news site said that the Ministry of the Interior did not give justification for withdrawing Medina’s protection and that Medina’s employer ABC Color did not pay life insurance that was stipulated in a collective contract for journalists who work in high-risk areas. E’a reported that SPP repeatedly issued reminders of this last fact.
Including Medina, a total of four journalists were killed in Paraguay in 2014. CPJ placed it in the top 20 deadliest countries for journalists that year. Radio journalist Fausto Gabriel Alcaraz was killed in May in Pedro Juan Caballero, which is north of Curuguaty, but also on the Brazilian border. Radio host Edgar Pantaleón Fernández Fleitas was fatally shot in nearby Concepción on June 9.
Medina was a regional correspondent for ABC Color, the largest daily newspaper in the country, and received repeated threats for his coverage of marijuana production and drug trafficking. A year before his murder, he and his family moved to Asunción for two months because of threats, ABC Color reported.
He also had previously been under police protection, but that was withdrawn in 2013, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF for its acronym in French). Two weeks before he was murdered, he called a colleague to ask how he had obtained police protection because he was worried after realizing a group of men had been following his daughter, according to ABC Color.
Medina’s brother Salvador Medina was murdered in 2001 in the same northeastern region of Canindeyú, which is known to be controlled by drug traffickers.
In March 2015, Paraguayan authorities sent a formal request to Brazil asking for the extradition of Paraguayan Vilmar Acosta Marques, the former mayor of Ypejhú in the Canendiyú department.
Attention quickly turned to Acosta Marques after Medina’s killing. As reported by ABC Color, the journalist had linked him to drug trafficking and homicides. Acosta Marques fled. Police and prosecution have identified Acosta Marques as the crime’s mastermind and linked his family members Wilson Acosta Marques and Flavio Acosta Riveros as the perpetrators.
Brazilian authorities captured Acosta Marques in March and he faces charges for Medina’s murder and is accused of drug trafficking. His extradition has been stalled because he claims he is a Brazilian citizen.
Medina’s family has expressed discontent that the perpetrators of the crime are still free, according to E’a.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
