The International Press Institute (IPI) today welcomed reports that authorities in Colombia, Bolivia, and Honduras have arrested suspects in the recent killings of four journalists, but underscored the importance of conducting complete and comprehensive investigations.

“These arrests appear to be a positive first step,” IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills said.  “But we urge investigators to carefully examine all elements of these cases. Police should keep an open mind and not dismiss the possibility of a link to the journalists’ professional activities.”

Mills emphasised that, despite the apparent progress, police have yet to present concrete motives or identify possible masterminds in the deaths of Colombian radio owner Argemiro Cárdenas Agudelo, Honduran reporter Fausto Evelio Hernández Arteaga, and Bolivian siblings Víctor and Verónica Hugo Peñasco Layme.

“It is absolutely essential that investigators conclusively determine who, if anyone, ordered these attacks and why,” Mills said. “Far too often the authorities in Latin America appear to be satisfied with the apprehension of a single suspect or triggerman in cases of journalist killings. Rarely are the masterminds, when they exist, brought to justice.”

Colombia

Colombian media reported last week that 22-year-old John Alexánder Jaramilo García had pleaded guilty before a judge in Dosquebradas (Risaralda province) of murdering Cárdenas Agudelo on Mar 15.  Federal agents had apprehended Jaramilo Garciá three days after Cárdenas Agudelo’s murder.

The suspected gunman, who according to some accounts is unable to read or write, reportedly told investigators that he was to have received 1 million pesos (approx. € 420) for murdering Cárdenas Agudelo, who owned and reported for Metro Radio and served as Dosquebradas mayor in the late 1990s.

The chief of police in Pereira, Risaralda’s capital, assured local media upon Jaramilo García’s indictment that “investigators will now turn their attention toward the capture of who might be the mastermind(s)” behind the killing of Cárdenas Agudelo, an intention vigorously supported by IPI.

Bolivia

In El Alto, Bolivia, outside of La Paz, police in early March arrested two suspects in the Feb. 25 murders of the Peñasco Layme siblings, Víctor and Verónica.  Bolivian media reported that investigators had found shoes and bloodied underwear said to belong to Verónica inside the home of one of the suspects, Félix Yupanqui.  In addition, cell phones apparently owned by the siblings were found at the residence of the second suspect, Adalid Mamami.

The lead prosecutor in the case, Santos Valencia, told the media that Yupunqui and Mamani, “appear to be the ones behind the act.” He added:  “The trial will determine if they are responsible with a guilty verdict.”

An El Alto judge, Karina Barea, found the evidence against the pair convincing enough to order them held in pre-trial detention at the San Pedro de Chonchocoro maximum-security prison.  Both have prior criminal records for armed robbery and rape.

Though the leading theory in the case is that the Peñasco siblings were victims of “acogatamiento” (a form of violence in which victims are overcome by assailants, asphyxiated and robbed, often on public transportation), unanswered questions remain.

A doorman and a secretary at Radio San Gabriel, where Verónica worked as communications director, told Bolivian media that Verónica believed she was being followed in the weeks leading up to her murder.  At least one local paper, Los Tiempos, reported that the prosecutor, Santos Valenica, confirmed that Verónica had been followed.  The secretary added that Verónica had received a death threat over the phone last year.

Local journalists have reportedly been frustrated with what they view as a lack of explanation for Verónica and Víctor’s murders.  La Opinión reported that, upon announcing the arrests to the media, Jorge Toro, the national director of the Special Anti-Crime Forces, declined to answer a journalist’s question about what, if any, links existed between the Peñasco siblings and their suspected killers.

Honduras

Authorities say they have arrested a suspect in the brutal murder of journalist Hernández Arteaga, 54, who was attacked and partially decapitated with a machete on Mar 10 in Sabá, Colón department, according to Honduran news outlets.  Reports say 24-year-old Santos Gabriel Menocal Vargas was arrested by a team of national and local police on Mar. 17 during an early-morning raid in the Las Golondrinas neighbourhood of Sabá.

A spokesman for the Honduran Security Secretary confirmed to the EFE, the Spanish news agency, that agents from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation had “captured the person who is believed to be responsible for the death [of Hernández Arteaga].”  According to EFE, the spokesman rejected the possibility that Hernández Arteaga’s killing was linked to his work as a journalist.

The chief of police in Colón department, Osmín Bardales, told El Heraldo that none of Herández Arteaga’s possessions had been taken, indicating that robbery was an unlikely motive.  Bardales speculated further that “[the attack] must have been because of a personal problem because if [the killer] had been a hired assassin he would have used a vehicle and a gun.”

El Heraldo cited unnamed witnesses in suggesting that Hernández Arteaga had previously had a discussion of unspecified consequence with Manolo Vargas and that the motive of the crime was jealousy.  However, the newspaper reported that the investigation has been hampered by the lack of cooperation from neighbourhood residents, who “are remaining silent out of fear.”

According to IPI’s Death Watch, Hernández Arteaga is the 17th journalist to be killed in Honduras in the past two years.  On Mar. 16, a group of journalists gathered in front of the Attorney General’s office in Tegucigalpa to protest the rising death toll and demand that the government bring those responsible for justice.  A similar protest in front of Honduras’s presidential palace in December – a week after the fatal shooting of female journalist Luz Marina Paz Villalobos – was violently suppressed by police and members of the presidential guard.