His Excellency Ramiro de León Carpio
President of the Republic of Guatemala
Palacio Nacional
Guatemala City
Guatemala

Vienna, 19 September 1994

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), representing over 2000 journalists and editors from leading newspapers, magazines and broadcasting organizations and news agencies in over 85 countries, is most concerned about the assassination by unidentified men of Victor Hugo Lopez, broadcaster for Radio Progresso, in Guatemala City on 12 September.

IPI is informed that, shortly thereafter, an attempt to kill a second journalist, Gerson Lopez of La Hora, took place but did not succeed.

IPI considers the repeated attacks against the press in recent months in Guatemala to be a violation of freedom of the press and we urge your government to conduct a full investigation of these two and any other possible incidents, in the spirit of the Declaration of Chapultepec which your government has adhered to.

I should be most grateful if you were to give this appeal your personal attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director