"With deep regret, I regret to report that the assassination of our compatriots has been confirmed," Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno wrote on his Twitter account on the early afternoon of Friday, April 13. The president publicly confirmed the death of the two journalists and the driver from newspaper El Comercio, who were kidnapped at the end of March by a dissident group of the FARC.
On April 4, the Civil Police of the State of Goiás handed the Brazilian justice system the completed investigation of the murder of radio journalist Jefferson Pureza, who was killed in the city of Edealina on January 17 of this year. The police investigation concluded that councillor José Eduardo Alves da Silva, of the Party of the Republic (PR), ordered the crime and should be charged with double-qualified homicide, for trivial motive and for payment, according to G1.
At least 19 journalists and media professionals were attacked in various cities in Brazil between April 5 and 7 while working to cover former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2011) going to jail, according to records from the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji). The assaults, which came from supporters of Lula and the Military Police, were repudiated by press organizations in Brazil and Latin America.
Two journalists with the Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio and their driver, who authorities say were abducted on March 26 by FARC dissident groups, were shown alive in a video broadcast on Colombian station RCN. The abduction took place close to a military checkpoint in Mataje, in the Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas that borders the Colombian border, according to El Comercio.
The Brazilian Civil Police have accused Renato Oliveira, deputy secretary of Embu das Artes prefecture, in the São Paulo metropolitan region, of being the author of an attack against journalist Gabriel Barbosa da Silva, which occurred on Dec. 28, 2017.
Before strong criticism of its inefficiency, and the escalating number of attacks and murders of journalists and human rights defenders that Mexico has experienced in the last almost two decades, the Advisory Council for the Mechanism for the Integral Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in Mexico City was finally implemented. The council will seek to make this system in the country’s capital more efficient.
Severe restrictions on freedom of expression that include censorship and closure of media outlets, assaults and attacks against journalists and criminalization of opinion contrary to the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, were documented by an annual report of the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The report specifically analyzed the situation of human rights in Venezuela during 2017.
The Brazilian Civil Police arrested four people on Feb. 9 in the town of Edealina, in the state of Goiás, who are suspected in the murder of radio broadcaster Jefferson Pureza. Those arrested include councilmember José Eduardo Alves da Silva, of the Party of the Republic (PR) who is accused by police of ordering the crime that occurred on Jan. 17, 2018.
Mexican blogger Pamela Montenegro was shot to death on Feb. 5 in a restaurant in Acapulco.
The bodies of a journalist and a publicist were found on Feb. 1 in a cane plantation in Santo Domingo Suchitepéquez, southwest of the Guatemalan capital, according to the public prosecutor.
A Colombian judge sentenced Yean Arlex Buenaventura to 58 years and 3 months in jail for the 2015 murder of journalist Luis Peralta Cuellar and his wife, Sofía Quintero. According to the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), which represented the victims in court, this is the highest sentence ever handed down in the country for a crime against freedom of expression.
Authorities are looking for Mexican reporter Agustín Silva Vázquez who was last seen on Jan. 21 in the state of Oaxaca.