His Excellency Alberto Fujimori
President of the Republic of Peru
Lima
Peru

Vienna, 9 June 1999

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI) strongly condemns the brutal killing of a radio journalist in northern Peru.

According to our sources, Félix Haro Rodriguez, a photographer and host of a programme broadcast on Radio 1160’s affiliate in Aucayacu, district of Huánuco, was found dead several days after having disappeared. The fact that he was killed with machetes suggests that the Maoist terror group, the “Sendero Luminoso” (Shining Path), was responsible for his death.

Félix Haro had been missing since 2 June, when two unknown individuals arrived at his home under the pretence of hiring him to take photographs at a social event. After an intensive search, his dismembered body was discovered in Cotomonillo, three kilometres from Aucayacu, where six villagers were recently assassinated by a brigade of the Shining Path.

Félix Haro’s radio programme featured traditional music, although he also informed listeners about problems in the region, including corruption among political authorities, the police and military, as well as the activities of terrorist and drug traffickers.

Peru, along with Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Guatemala, is one of the most dangerous places for journalists in Latin America. Peruvian journalists are regularly subjected to threats, harassment and physical attacks by criminal gangs, as well as to a systematic campaign of government prosecution. In 1997, three journalists were murdered in Peru. In 1998, Isabel Chumpitaz Panta, a radio journalist who championed peasant farmers’ rights, was shot and stabbed to death by a group of assailants who also killed her husband and wounded her brother.

IPI, the global network of editors and media executives, fears that Félix Haro may have been killed as a direct result of his professional work. We therefore urge Your Excellency to authorise an immediate and thorough investigation into his killing and to ensure that those responsible for this heinous crime are brought to justice. We further urge that all possible steps are taken to ensure journalists in Peru are allowed to freely and safely practice their profession.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director