The Paraguayan attorney general’s office should immediately retract letters sent to privately owned newspapers ABC Color and Última Hora demanding the outlets disclose the names of journalists who wrote stories about alleged money laundering, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

On August 23, ABC Color and Última Hora received the official letters for certified copies of several reports published without bylines and the names of the journalists who authored them.

Three public attorneys – Aldo Cantero, Rodrigo Estigarribia, and Daniela Benítez – signed the letters and gave the outlets a 48-hour deadline to respond. On August 25, the newspapers sent the certified copies but declined to disclose the journalists’ names.

“The Paraguayan attorney general’s office must not be politically manipulated to intimidate the free exercise of journalism, and should immediately rescind letters demanding ABC Color and Última Hora turn over journalists’ information,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator. “Such actions show a clear disregard for international human rights standards and the Paraguayan Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press.”

The letter sent to Última Hora asked for a certified copy of a May 13, 2022, report about alleged money laundering involving former President Horacio Cartes. ABC Color was ordered to send certified copies of a June 6, 2022, report and a July 13, 2022, report about Paraguayan senators allegedly discussing money laundering with U.S. elected officials.

Rocio Cáceres, chief information officer of Última Hora, told CPJ that the outlet regularly sends certified copies of stories when requested to prove the text is authentic and complete.

“But why are they asking for the name of the journalist? We usually don’t sign stories that can put journalists at risk,” Cáceres said. “It is crystal clear this is to intimidate us.”

On Thursday, August 24, the Paraguayan Union of Journalists condemned the letters, calling them an attempt to intimidate the media and silence criticism through judicial harassment.

On Friday, the attorney general’s office issued a statement saying it was within its rights “to request information from any public or private entity.” The statement said that journalists had a right to not reveal their sources, but did not mention the demand for the reporters’ names.

Rodrigo Yódice, ABC Color’s lawyer, told CPJ that the statement, “confirms that it is a criminal and state persecution against freedom of expression and the press.”

A press officer for the attorney general’s office responded to CPJ’s request for comment with a copy of that Friday statement. CPJ’s text message to the deputy attorney general did not immediately receive a reply.

In January 2020, Cartes was accused in Brazil of helping alleged moneylender Dario Messer flee to Paraguay. In January 2022, Cartes was denounced before the Paraguayan Secretariat for the Prevention of Money or Asset Laundering for alleged money laundering, illegal enrichment, and false statements. In January 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Cartes.

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Paraguayan authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Alexander Álvarez, determine if he was targeted for his work, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

On Tuesday, February 14, an unidentified attacker on a motorcycle shot Álvarez while he was in his car at a stoplight in Pedro Juan Caballero, a city near Paraguay’s border with Brazil, according to multiple news reports and two of his coworkers who spoke to CPJ.

Álvarez, who produced a morning news program for the local privately owned broadcaster Radio Urundey and hosted an afternoon music program, was transported to a hospital, where he died of two gunshot wounds to the face.

“Paraguayan authorities must conduct a swift investigation into the killing of Alexander Álvarez, determine the motive for the attack, and bring those responsible to justice,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “It is authorities’ responsibility to make sure journalists are able to do their jobs safely without fear of violence.”

Radio Urundey journalists Rubén Valdez and Nelson Candia told CPJ via messaging app that Álvarez was not an investigative reporter and did not cover sensitive news topics. Separate from his journalism, Álvarez was also a musician and bought and sold vehicles, and some of his clients owed him money, Valdez said.

Baldomero Jorgge, assistant commander of the National Police, told a news conference Wednesday that his agents had not determined the motive of the attack. Pedro Juan Caballero is among the most violent cities in Paraguay due to its criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking, according to the think tank Insight Crime.

Elida Favole, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office in Asunción, the capital, told CPJ via messaging app that three prosecutors are investigating the killing.

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Paraguayan authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Humberto Coronel, determine if he was targeted for his work, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

On Tuesday, September 6, an unidentified man on a motorcycle shot and killed Coronel as he left the office of his employer, Radio Amambay, in the city of Pedro Juan Caballero near Paraguay’s border with Brazil, according to multiple reports by the local newspaper ABC Color.

According to those reports, which include a video of the attack, Coronel was shot eight times as he left the privately owned broadcaster’s office. Coronel hosted a daily news and music program on Radio Amambay, where he sometimes denounced political corruption and the police force’s alleged inability to solve crimes, according to Gustavo Báez, a journalist who also works at the radio station, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

According to Báez and ABC Color, an unidentified person left a written death threat at Báez’s home in June, which said in Portuguese that he and Coronel “knew too much.” The journalists reported the threat to local authorities, but Coronel refused offers of police protection because he did not trust the police, Báez told CPJ.

“Paraguayan authorities should leave no stone unturned in investigating the brutal killing of journalist Humberto Coronel in Pedro Juan Caballero, which has become the deadliest place for the Paraguayan press,” said CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator, Natalie Southwick, in New York. “Police must treat this case with utmost seriousness, determine whether Coronel was targeted for his work, and bring all those responsible to justice.”

Following his death, Pedro Juan Caballero public prosecutor Katia Uemura said that Coronel’s previous refusal of police protection amounted to having “gifted himself” to the killer. She was removed from the case on Wednesday after those comments, and the new public prosecutor, Sandra Quiñonez, said she was putting together a team to investigate the killing, according to news reports.

Elida Favole, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office in Asunción, the capital, told CPJ via messaging app that the team includes four prosecutors specialized in investigating drug trafficking and organized crime. When contacted via messaging app, Gen. Ruben Paredes, the police chief of Amambay province, which includes Pedro Juan Caballero, told CPJ that he could not comment on the case.

Insight Crime, a think tank that monitors organized crime in Latin America, has described Pedro Juan Caballero as the most violent city in Paraguay and a base of operations for Brazilian drug-trafficking gangs.

In May, gunmen fatally shot the city’s mayor, José Carlos Acevedo, who was part of a powerful political family in the region and owned Radio Amambay, according to news reports. Pedro Juan Caballero deputy police chief Baldomero Jorgge said at a news conference that by killing Coronel, the masterminds of the crime may have been trying to further attack the Acevedo family.

On February 12, 2020, two masked men fatally shot Lourenço “Léo” Veras, a Brazilian national and the owner and manager of Porã News, a news website covering organized crime on the Paraguay-Brazil border, at his home in Pedro Juan Caballero.

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The IAPA called for the decriminalization of defamation in Paraguay

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) expressed concern over the judicial harassment against the editor and a journalist of the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color. The organization recalled that criminal and civil lawsuits often intimidate the media and journalists and encourage self-censorship.

The editor of ABC Color, Natalia Zuccolillo, and journalist Juan Carlos Lezcano were accused in three criminal cases. First, the former vice-minister of Taxation during the presidency of Horacio Manuel Cartes Jara (2013-2018), Marta González Ayala, filed a defamation lawsuit for six reports disclosed between March 27 and April 22, 2019. She asked for a prison sentence and compensation of approximately U$S 1,400,000. Another case for slander and defamation is linked to notes published between March 15 and 21, 2021. The third lawsuit for alleged crimes against honor and reputation was filed by attorney Jacinto Santa María, husband of the former vice-minister.

IAPA President Jorge Canahuati, CEO of Grupo Opsa, of Honduras, said: “Reports and resolutions of our institution show how in many countries defamation lawsuits are used by public officials to counteract allegations of corruption against them.” But, he added: “The case of Paraguay alarms us because we have not been able to influence legislators and governments to decriminalize defamation, as has been achieved in other countries of the continent.”

The president of the Commission on Freedom of the Press and Information, Carlos Jornet, editor of La Voz del Interior of Argentina, warned about “the chilling effect that lawsuits have on media. The cases seek to economically damage the media and discourage investigative journalism by requiring resources, experts and time to attend to the lawsuits.”

Canahuati and Jornet pointed out that the IAPA has been requesting for many years that lawsuits for libel and slander, when they involve public officials, be heard in civil and not criminal jurisdiction. They also consider that limits be set on the amount of compensation to avoid abuses because often high or disproportionate reparations are intended to undermine the economic sustainability of the media.

The Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression of the IACHR states that reputation should only be guaranteed through civil sanctions in cases where the person offended is a public official, a public person, or a private person who has voluntarily become involved in matters of public interest. In the same sense, the IAPA’s Declaration of Salta of Principles on Freedom of Expression in the Digital Age, in its third article, states: “In cases where civil claims are filed, evidence of real malice must be proven.”

The IAPA officers urged the Paraguayan authorities to join the trend of countries in the Americas that have embraced Inter-American legal standards on decriminalizing these crimes, a struggle that the IAPA has championed for decades through its Chapultepec Project.

Canahuati and Jornet expressed the organization’s solidarity with ABC Color, Zuccolillo, and Lezcano, and said they would be watching the judicial process closely.

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A city divided by a border. In Paraguay its name is Pedro Juan Caballero, while in Brazil, it’s Ponta Porã. Violence is a constant in this city located in the middle of South America, far from the larger urban centers. The area is known for its pervasive organised crime, particularly the presence of numerous drug trafficking groups. The Primer Comando de la Capital (First Capital Command, PCC) is one such group, and assassinations, corruption and torture are among the crimes reported on a daily basis in the region.

Brazilian journalist Leo Veras lived in Pedro Juan Caballero and reported on the situation in the area. On 12 February 2020, hitmen entered Veras’s home and shot him twelve times as he was preparing to have dinner with his family. Veras was not the first journalist to be assassinated in Pedro Juan Caballero.

In its 2017 report titled ‘Silenced Zones’, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ (IACHR) Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression characterised the situation in the area of Paraguay’s border with Brazil as highly dangerous for those who exercise journalism. In addition, the report stated that “with the advancement of so-called ‘narcopolitics’, freedom of expression has been affected insofar as journalists face serious difficulties when they try to report on specific unlawful activities being conducted in their communities and the institutions – according to the journalists themselves – do not function as they should to protect them.”

IFEX member the Sindicato de Periodistas del Paraguay (Paraguayan Journalists Union, SPP) has noted that the border between Paraguay and Argentina is also a problematic area for those exercising journalism in the country, along with other zones where organised crime groups have taken control, whether formally or informally. According to the SPP, these groups constantly compete for territorial control, which contributes to an increasingly dangerous situation for journalists.

The SPP’s deputy secretary general, Santiago Ortiz, recalls when violence against the press in Paraguay peaked, in 2015. According to Ortiz, the situation received little attention outside of the country. Paraguay was never seen as a ‘hotspot’, especially when compared with the horrific statistics for attacks on the press in other countries in the region, such as Colombia or Mexico.

At that time, SPP, along with the IFEX-ALC network, organised a campaign to raise awareness at the international level about the Paraguayan situation. The measures taken included sending a report to and carrying out various activities with the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. In 2016, Paraguay was scheduled to be examined during the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). (Within the UPR process, states are evaluated – by other states – regarding the human rights situation in their territory.)

Ortiz believes the campaign was a success. As a result of that process, the government of Paraguay was given nine recommendations regarding freedom of expression and information. Important steps forward, driven by the campaign, have taken place since 2016, including: the development of a protocol for journalist security and police action in areas of risk; the creation of a Roundtable for Journalist Security as the operational body for this protocol; and the initiation of discussions regarding a law on journalist security. For Ortiz, perhaps the most important achievement was “the awareness-raising that took place among citizens regarding the importance of guaranteeing protections and security for journalists, in order to ensure the ability to exercise freedom of expression for all.”

Journalist and lawyer José María Costa is the director of Transparency and Access to Information at the Supreme Court of Justice and the coordinator of the Roundtable for Journalist Security in Paraguay. He also notes the advances that have taken place. He sees an overall “broad environment of freedom of expression and press freedom in the country”, backed by specific and clear constitutional norms. This includes the existence and expansion of media outlets – with an increasing number of digital media and networks in particular – along with the creation of the Roundtable for Journalist Security, and the approval and entry into effect of the Law on Access to Public Information and Government Transparency (Ley Nº 5282/14).

Costa notes, however, that there have also been setbacks, calling attention, for example, to the growing issue of media concentration: “At this time, in practice, the greatest portion of the media, with the largest audiences and most presence on the social scene, is concentrated in just four large chains or networks.” Costa also highlights the precarious nature of journalism as an occupation: “With the emergence of multiplatform formats, journalists are forced to expand the scope of their services within the same media companies, contributing to greater job stress and deteriorating work conditions, which also then affects the quality of the content they produce.”

Unfortunately, despite the advances that have been outlined, there is still much to be done. Attacks on journalists continue. In addition to Leo Veras, Eduardo González, a journalist in Carmen del Paraná, died after being severely beaten. He was found at the side of the Graneros del Sur highway in early March 2016. Between 2016 and 2019, numerous cases of attacks and other aggressions against journalists were reported, including threats linked to their work, physical attacks, and harassment involving cyberbullying, stigmatisation, judicial persecution, and sexual violence.

Costa says that “a few months ago there were reports of identity theft and hacking of the telephones of two journalists who carried out investigations into corruption. Their data was compromised, and likely their sources as well.” These types of cyber-attacks constitute a new and escalating form of violence against journalists.

Attacks of this nature do not affect everyone in the same way or to the same degree. In general, female journalists are more commonly subjected to cyber harassment, cyber-attacks and digital security breaches. As a result, female journalists suffer both for exercising their right to freedom of expression and for their gender. An example is the case of journalist Noelia Díaz Esquivel, who received death threats via social media after publicly referring to a femicide that took place in the capital, Asunción.

Journalist Flavia Borja asserts that “female journalists who focus on gender, focus on rights, focus on feminism, are subjected to more attacks.” In addition, according to Borja, mechanisms and protocols that would ensure safe reporting of the harassment that takes place within newsrooms are lacking. Media outlets also fail to implement cyber security protocols for their journalists. When threats or violence against female journalists take place, “they simply face the situation alone.”

Dante Leguizamón, a human rights defender and former member of the National Commission against Torture, notes that impunity continues to be a problem that Paraguay has been unable to solve, both in cases involving female journalists as well as in other attacks. Of the 19 journalist assassinations that have taken place since 1991, only the cases of Samuel Román and Pablo Medina have been solved, with the perpetrators being sentenced. In the case of Salvador Medina, the hit man was convicted, but not the masterminds behind the crime.

Santiago Leguizamón, Dante’s father, was assassinated in 1991. He was ambushed and shot 21 times in Pedro Juan Caballero. Since then, Journalist’s Day has been commemorated on 26 April in Paraguay. In August 2020, the IACHR found that the Paraguayan state was responsible for the lack of protection and ongoing impunity in the case. This took place 30 years after the assassination, and 13 years after the IACHR process initiated.

That IACHR finding is an example of the important impact international human rights bodies can have in cases involving systematic violations at the national level. This is one of the reasons behind the SPP’s decision to once again present a report on the Paraguayan freedom of expression situation to the UN’s Human Rights Council.

Paraguay will be evaluated in the third cycle of the UPR on 5 May. SPP and the IFEX-ALC network have proposed a series of recommendations aimed at solving the problems that have been highlighted, in the hope that the evaluating states will adopt these recommendations and pass them on to the Paraguayan state. The recommendations cover issues such as combatting impunity and violence against journalists, as well as concerns regarding censorship, mass dismissals, community radio stations, the rights of female journalists and media concentration.

Jose Maria Costa believes that an evaluation by international organisations “can contribute to addressing chronic problems and seeking solutions in the country.” And Santiago Ortiz takes this view further, saying, “We hope this will be a wake-up call for the state to guarantee freedom of expression.”

For this to happen, we must all pay close attention. Paraguay’s citizens and the international community should demand immediate action. We must ensure that attacks on freedom of expression in Paraguay are brought to light.

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Three months after the murder of journalist Léo Veras, the investigation has still not identified the person responsible for the crime. He was shot 12 times while dining with his family at his home in Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay. On 1 May 2020, in the same city, the police arrested Waldemar Pereira Rivas, known as “Cachorrão”, who had been on the run since February and is considered the main suspect in having planned Veras’s murder. He was detained after being recognized by Paraguayan police, after causing a traffic accident.

Taken the next day to Asunción, Rivas was charged by prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, who leads the task force investigating the case, with intentional homicide and criminal association. According to reports, “Cachorrão” is part of the drug trafficking gang of the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital) operating on the border between Brazil and Paraguay.

Rivas denies the crime and already stated, in a radio interview, in February 2020, that he was a friend of the victim and that he could prove this. The journalist’s widow and family continue to be escorted 24 hours a day by the Paraguayan police. They prefer not to comment on the case and await the trial.

“Cachorrão” lives a few blocks from the murdered journalist’s house and is the owner of a white Jeep Renegade, which allegedly was used to transport the three men who were at Léo Veras’s house on the night of his execution. Reportedly Rivas has a video to be presented in court to confirm his version, which is that he has a similar car and that he did not take part in the attack. However, thus far, this video has not been presented to the Paraguayan Public Prosecutor’s Office.

There is also information, not confirmed by the authorities, that he lodged one of the gunmen who broke into the journalist’s home. Two entered through the front door and the third, who entered through the side street, ended up being shot by one of his cronies. Neighbours of the dead journalist saw the assailant being removed from the scene by the other two. His identity has not yet been revealed.

According to prosecutor Marco Amarilla, who is part of the task force, evidence is being collected and will be analyzed during the investigation. The next step will be the conclusive application, that is, the complaint against the accused who will be brought to court. Amarilla explained that, in Paraguay, the court has no citizens jury, as in Brazil. The case will be heard by three judges, sometime in 2020, with the presence of a prosecutor and the defendant’s defense. Due to security measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Paraguayan courts are expected to return in the week of May 18, 2020.

PCC involvement

The prosecutor said that the involvement of Ederson Salinas Benítez, known as Salinas Ryguasu, head of the PCC in the region, was not ruled out. The drug dealer was arrested at dawn on 20 January 2020, during a traffic incident that resulted in his arrest. After being overtaken by a driver cursing and brandishing a gun, Ryguasu went after the driver, cut him off and got out with his gun in hand, shouting that he was the boss and was in charge in the area. The confrontation was interrupted by the police, and he was arrested.

Upon arriving at the police station, he presented a Brazilian ID document with the name of Edson Barbosa Salinas and, as there was nothing in the police record, the judge on duty set bail of R$ 80,000 for his release. The suspect would have been released were it not for information passed to the justice by the Federal Police. Federal Police agents, with the assistance of the Paraguayan police, confirmed that the Brazilian document was false and that the prisoner’s true identity was Ederson Salinas Benitez, or Ryguasu.

At the time, information circulated that Léo Veras was responsible for informing the authorities of the true identity of the drug trafficker. For this reason, Salinas Ryguasu allegedly gave the order for the journalist to be executed.

On 11 March 2020, a habeas corpus benefited Ryguasu, and the drug trafficker left the Dourados State Penitentiary, where he had been imprisoned since January 2020, after submitting ten coupons that added up to the bail amount. He was informed that he would have to appear every month to provide evidence of where he was residing. However, in accordance with Judge Marcelo Guimarães, due to the security measures taken after the pandemic, this obligatory measure was suspended. The tribunals in Ponta Porã, where he was arrested, are handling only urgent cases of arrested defendants.

Tim Lopes Program

The murder of journalist Léo Veras is the third case to be included in the Tim Lopes Program, developed by Abraji, with support from the Open Society Foundations, to combat violence against journalists and impunity for the responsible parties.

In the case of crimes linked to the exercise of the journalistic profession, a network of traditional and independent media outlets is created to monitor the investigations and to publish reports following up on the denouncements on which the journalist was working until he/she was killed. Currently these media outlets are part of the network: Agência Pública, Correio (BA), O Globo, Poder 360, Ponte Jornalismo, Projeto Colabora, TV Aratu, TV Globo and Veja.

The murder of broadcaster Jefferson Pureza, 39, in Edealina Goiás, on 17 January 2018, was the first case investigated under this program. The journalist was killed while resting on his home’s veranda. Former councillor José Eduardo Alves da Silva, 41, was accused of being the mastermind and, in the 2019 trial, he chose to remain silent. At the time, a security guard, Marcelo Rodrigues dos Santos, 40, was also tried, accused of having connected the councillor with some minors who carried out the shooting. According to investigations, the murder was negotiated for R $ 5,000 and a revolver.

In a hearing on 9 December 2019, a citizens’ jury acquitted the two accused of involvement in the crime, despite recognizing their role in the case and in the corruption of minors who committed the murder. The prosecution appealed for a retrial.

The second case involves radio broadcaster Jairo de Sousa, 43, who died at dawn on 21 June 2018, after being shot twice in the chest when he arrived at work at the Pérola FM radio station, in Bragança, Pará. The suspected mastermind is councillor Cesar Monteiro. He reportedly hired a group of ten people to carry out the crime. According to the investigation records, the murder allegedly cost R$ 30,000.

In May 2019, city councillor César Monteiro had his preventive detention revoked, after the Pará Court of Justice granted him a habeas corpus. However, on 8 April 2019, he was arrested again on charges of killing the radio host. There is still no date set for a citizens’ jury.

The post Who ordered the killing of Léo Veras? appeared first on IFEX.

Authorities in Brazil and Paraguay must work together to promptly and thoroughly investigate the killing of Brazilian journalist Lourenço “Léo” Veras and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On February 12, at about 9 p.m., masked men shot and killed Veras, the owner and manager of Porã News, a news website covering organized crime, at his home in the Paraguayan city of Pedro Juan Caballero, which borders the Brazilian city of Ponta Porã, according to a report by Brazilian broadcaster G1.

The men drove to Veras’ home in a white truck and raided the journalist’s home while he was having dinner with his wife, son, and father-in-law, according to Paraguayan daily ABC Color.

Veras tried to escape, but the attackers shot him in the leg, and proceeded to shoot him 11 times, including once in the head, according to that report. He was brought to a local hospital following the attack and died shortly afterwards, according to ABC Color.

Porã News covers organized crime, policing, and drug trafficking-related issues on the Brazil-Paraguay border. According to another ABC Color report, Ignacio Rodríguez, the director of police in Amambay, Paraguay, said the attack may have been retaliation for material published by Porã News.

“The Paraguay-Brazil border continues to be one of the most dangerous places for journalists in South America,” said CPJ Central and South America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick in New York. “Authorities on both sides of the border must take swift action to investigate the killing of Léo Veras, bring those responsible to justice, and ensure other journalists in the region are not terrorized or killed for doing their jobs.”

Carlos Eduardo, an investigator with the Civil Police in Brazil’s Matro Grosso do Sul state, told CPJ in an email that Paraguayan authorities are responsible for investigating Vera’s killing, but said that the civil police are working with their Paraguayan counterparts to look into whether the killers fled to Brazil after the attack.

According to a statement by the National Federation of Journalists in Brazil, an association of journalists’ unions, Veras had previously reported receiving death threats in relation to his work. In an interview with Brazilian broadcaster TV Record that aired on January 28, Veras described receiving numerous threats from drug dealers as a consequence of his reporting.

Veras previously worked for six months as a regional correspondent for ABC Color, and worked occasionally as a correspondent for other media outlets in the Brazilian border state of Mato Grosso do Sul, according to ABC Color.

The newspaper reported that during his time as a correspondent, Veras was granted police protection due to a series of threats he received from members of an organized crime group.

The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji), a local trade and press freedom group, said in a statement that people close to Veras told the organization that the journalist was concerned about the escape of 75 detainees from a prison in Pedro Juan Caballero in January, many of whom had ties to Brazilian organized crime.

A journalist working in Pedro Juan Caballero, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing security concerns, said they were similarly afraid, and believed some of the escapees might try to target journalists they had previously threatened.

The association’s statement said that Veras had worked for more than 15 years in the border region around Pedro Juan Caballero and Ponta Porã, one of the main entry points of arms and drugs in Brazil.

In 2015, Paraguayan radio journalist Gerardo Ceferino Servían Coronel was shot and killed in Ponta Porã, as CPJ documented at the time. ABC Color journalist Cándido Figueredo Ruíz, who received CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 2015, has faced repeated death threats and has a round-the-clock police protection detail.

CPJ emailed the Brazilian Federal Police, the Paraguayan National Police, and the Paraguayan Public Prosecution’s Office, but did not receive any responses.

When CPJ called the Paraguayan consulate in the city of Ponta Porã, a staffer who answered the phone said the consulate did not have any official statement to share.

In a documentary made by Abraji in 2017, Veras spoke about the threats he had received, saying, “My wife and I, we hardly attend any social events and parties around, unless it is in a place I know is safe.”

He added, “We have to die one day. I always hope that my death won’t be so violent, with too many rifle shots. Here, if a hitman wants to kill you he comes to your door, tells you to open it and he will shoot you. I hope that it will only be one shot in order not to cause too much damage.”

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Paraguay authorities should thoroughly investigate attacks against journalists at a protest in Asunción and take measures to ensure that journalists can cover protests without being injured or assaulted, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On July 23, during a protest by taxi drivers in Asunción, the capital, police fired rubber bullet pellets at a crowd, hitting at least two journalists, Fernando Riveros of newspaper publisher Grupo Nación and Jorge Escurra of TV broadcaster C9N Paraguay, according to news reports and posts on social media by their employers.

Angélica Giménez of broadcaster GEN and Sergio Daniel Riveros of newspaper Ultima Hora were also injured during the protest, according to a statement by local press freedom group Forum of Paraguayan Journalists and the Association of Graphic Reporters in Paraguay.

Reporter Dalma Benítez of Radio Urbana 106.9 FM reported being groped and harassed by a taxi driver participating in the protest, according to press reports and an interview with Benítez posted online by her employer.

“Paraguay police should ensure the safety of the press during protests, not use force against them; and authorities should hold the police to account if journalists are injured,” said CPJ South and Central America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick in New York. “The groping and harassment of journalist Dalma Benítez highlights the challenges faced by female journalists and the need for all authorities to send the message that sexual violence of any kind is not tolerated.”

Police fired rubber bullets that hit Fernando Riveros in his leg and Escurra in his face and arm, according to reports. The rubber pellets caused more than a dozen sores on Riveros’ leg, and he received treatment for his wounds, as seen in a post by his employer on Twitter. CPJ could not confirm the extent of Escurra’s injuries.

Giménez fell during the clashes and received a blow to her head, she told local radio broadcaster HOY in an interview, saying that National Police officers assisted her and helped her get medical assistance.

Sergio Daniel Riveros was hit with a bottle in his ribs, according to a report by his employer. CPJ could not confirm the extent of his injuries.

In her interview, Benítez said that a demonstrator groped her breasts while she was reporting, calling the act “disgusting and disgraceful” and admonishing the police for not intervening. “I was [broadcasting] live and went into shock. I kept tearing up while reporting,” Benítez said, adding that other demonstrators responded by saying that she lacked what it took to be a journalist.

According to press reports, Benítez filed a complaint after the incident, and the prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation and summoned a suspect to appear for an interview.

CPJ emailed the National Police of Paraguay and the prosecutor’s office for comment, but did not receive any response.

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Later that year, the IFEX-ALC network led a fact-finding mission to Paraguay. With Paraguay’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) scheduled for early 2016, an important opportunity to review the country’s human rights record and exert global pressure presented itself.

This video tells the story of how IFEX-ALC worked with its local member Sindicato de Periodistas del Paraguay (SPP), along with victims of impunity, their families, journalists, officials, and others, to bring this issue to international attention.

As a result of their efforts and the power of the IFEX-ALC network, Paraguay has finally started to see real change – including, for the first time, the conviction of someone for ordering an attack on a journalist.

The post Tackling Impunity in Paraguay: Resistance, Persistence, and the Power of a Network appeared first on IFEX.

It was truly a testament to the power of the network when, in December 2017, the IFEX-ALC learned that the man behind the 2014 murder of Pablo Medina had been sentenced to 29 years in jail. It was the first time that someone who ordered an attack on a journalist in Paraguay had been sentenced for that crime.

Today, on the anniversary of the death of journalist Pablo Medina, we are launching this video to celebrate the work of the IFEX-ALC and highlight this story of successful network collaboration and campaigning.

The post IFEX-ALC: Murder, justice and the true power of a network appeared first on IFEX.