Brazilian courts have sentenced a man to almost 30 years in prison for the 2013 murders of two journalists in Minas Gerais, but press advocates urge authorities to look for the masterminds behind the crimes.
When Miguel Ángel López Solana received the news on August 1 that fellow journalist Rubén Espinosa had been murdered in Mexico City, the entire nightmare that had forced him to escape from Veracruz four years earlier came back to him.
The murder of photojournalist Rubén Espinosa on 31 July in Mexico City was without a doubt a turning point in matters of security for Mexican journalists. For this reason, his colleagues are demanding that the crime does not go unpunished and that the Mexican state provide protection for journalists.
Mexico was the second country in the region to implement a protection mechanism. However, after three years of its existence, its effectiveness continues to be questioned as the numbers of journalists murdered grow. This is the first of a series of posts about special protection mechanisms for journalists created by governments in Latin America.
Brazilian journalist Gleydson Carvalho died Thursday after two men fatally shot him at his radio studio while he was on air.
A journalist who had fled Veracruz out of concern for his life has been found dead in Mexico City, calling attention to ever increasing violence against media workers in Mexico and existing protection offered to those who fear for their lives.
In the last decade, Mexico has become one of the most dangerous countries of the world for journalists, largely due to the so-called War on Drugs in the northern region that borders the United States.
Rodrigo Neto, a journalist and radio host from Ipatinga, Minas Gerais, denounced injustices and held police accountable.
A year after Nicaraguan journalists called on authorities for protection during anti-government protests, several were reportedly threatened during demonstrations in Managua last week.
The Brazilian Federal Police and Interpol captured one of the people accused of the murder of journalist and writer Rodolfo Walsh, who was killed in March 1977 during the last dictatorship in Argentina, according to newspaper Zero Hora. Walsh was also a militant of the Montoneros, an extreme left-wing Peronist guerrilla group.
Impunity in the murders of journalists has always been a problem in most Latin American countries.
Former Colombian legislator and politician Ferney Tapasco has been sentenced to 36 years in prison for being the mastermind of the 2002 murder of La Patria deputy editor Orlando Sierra who was killed because of his work.