Enrique Mendez
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, March 8, 2022, p. eleven
The inertia of violence and murders against journalists and rights defenders has been sustained for 16 years and to this day prevails
in a context where even municipal governments they feel free to be the aggressors
lamented Enrique Irazoque Palazuelos, head of the Human Rights Defense Unit of the Ministry of the Interior.
In a meeting with the homologous commission of the Chamber of Deputies, he emphasized that between 40 and 45 percent of the attacks come from local authorities, mainly from the municipalities, and 30 percent from organized crime, in a phenomenon that is concentrated in five states, but with high rates in Guerrero and Veracruz.
The official reported that this week, through said commission, an initiative to reform article 73 of the Constitution will be presented so that Congress can legislate on the protection of journalists and human rights defenders that makes local governments co-responsible.
He explained that the Government has been able to document that, from the six-year term of Felipe Calderón and until the first three years of that of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, 252 journalists have been murdered. With Calderón, 101 were committed, in the mandate of Enrique Peña Nieto 96 and in the current administration 55 have occurred.
The increase in attacks on journalists and human rights defenders is one more component of the human rights crisis that the federal government has recognized
the official pointed out.
He cited as an emblematic case that of the journalist Alfredo Jiménez Mota, of The Impartialdisappeared since April 2, 2005 and whose whereabouts are unknown and those responsible have not been arrested, much less a sentence has been obtained.
Irazoque Palazuelos pointed out that one of the main factors that generates aggression is impunity. Of the 55 murders committed so far by this government, he said that a sentence has only been achieved in six cases, while of the 98 human rights defenders killed there is only a sentence in two, an impunity of 89 and 99 percent, respectively.
He presented to the legislators the current policy that does not link states and municipalities in the protection mechanism, since he cited that the current law has not reached its full exercise due to lack of collaboration and absence of linkage to local authorities.
He asserted that once constitutional article 73 is modified, the Interior will present a general law initiative that will arise from the opinions of families, victims and journalists and human rights defenders.
