Another journalist murdered a month before general elections
Another journalist murdered a month before general elections
Published on Friday 25 October 2013.
The bullet-riddled body of Manuel Murillo Varela, a young freelance cameraman, was found in Tegucigalpa yesterday, exactly four months after journalist Anibal Barrow’s abduction and murder. This later murder of a journalist comes just a month before general elections scheduled for 24 November.
“We call on the authorities to organize a thorough and independent investigation to shed light on all aspects of this murder,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We also call for an end to impunity for all crimes of violence against journalists, because investigations have been slow to produce results.
“In view of the constant violence against journalists and the fact that most cases go unpunished, we urge candidates in next month’s elections to undertake to ensure respect for freedom of information in their districts, and we urge the authorities to create a special committee for the protection of journalists during the election period.”
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had asked Honduras to take precautionary measures to protect Murillo after a score of policemen kidnapped and tortured him and a colleague for 24 hours in February 2010.
More:
http://en.rsf.org/honduras-another-journalist-murdered-a-25-10-2013,45384.html
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Manuel Murillo Varela
Google translation:
At dawn on June 28, 2009: An Army command has
surrounded the house Honduran President Manuel Zelaya
and there is Manuel Varela Murillo, cameraman, pitting
military with his camera (Manuel in black shirt).
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Cameraman Executed beneficiary of precautionary measures granted by the IACHR
Alert 00066-2013 / October 24, 2013
Tegucigalpa, Honduras: (C-Libre). The cameraman Manuel Varela Murillo 32-year-old man was found executed three bullet holes in his face, in the Colonia Independencia Comayagüela city the capital of Honduras.
Murillo was the beneficiary of acautelares measures granted on February 25, 2010 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The IACHR granted precautionary measures cameraman to learn that the young man with a colleague were abducted and tortured on February 2, 2010, by plainclothes police, who took them to a secret prison.
According to reports the cameraman brought before the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH) and to the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), on that occasion the police demanded that she turn the videos they had filmed the protests of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), otherwise his family would be killed without hesitation.
In the statements that the cameraman gave the COFADEH and CVR, his life and that of her two daughters were in danger and that he knew "that people wanted him dead".
The cameraman he worked in 2008 as official videographer ousted President Manuel Zelaya Rosales, also worked for TV Globo in 2010 and in recent years working directly with one of the candidates for deputies by political party Freedom and Refundación ( FREE).
Murillo was also active leader in the Scout Group Number 20 "Juan Pablo Ordoñez".
http://anncol.eu/index.php/el-mundo/latinoamerica/honduras/259-honduras-archivo/4823-oct-24-honduras-sangra-ejecutan-a-camarografo-beneficiario-de-medidas-cautelares-otorgadas-por-la-cidh
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Google translation:
In life threatening: Gunmen seek cameraman at home
For Defenders Online
Wednesday, 03 March 2010 10:11 AM
Every day the danger to the life of Manuel de Jesús Varela Murillo, more latent, just five days ago gunmen placed a gun to one of his neighbors to tell them if it was in the house.
Varela Murillo is the Globo TV cameraman who was kidnapped and tortured on 2 February, by plainclothes police who took him to a secret prison where sui life was at risk, with Ricardo Rodriguez, another cameraman who works with the news My Nation.
They took his computer and forced to take videos endurance marches and leaving the country last January 27, President Manuel Zelaya Rosales, which was to leave the police station of the colony Kennedy, 3 February, where he was forced to take the videos, after his February 2 hijackers threatened him that if not delivered, her two young daughters and his mother would be killed.
Murillo was arrested by police on November 25, 2009 at a time when stuck posters that said "Yes to the Constituent Assembly elections not" being taken to the post of the colony above, there the same police who participated in its kidnapping, forced him to display the poster as he took a photograph.
In a testimony before the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras, COFADEH, said that the danger to his life is not over, as the February 25 when there was a massive mobilization of the National Popular Resistance Front, FNRP their repressors went back to the streets where they infiltrated the activity for monitoring people and take their next victims profiles.
Her criminal activity was not only there but the policeman who took photos at the post of the colony Kennedy, to see him, threatened to kill him, forcing Varela Murillo, who covered the mobilization by its canal, approach it and take a video, which was released on that channel.
Although the Human Rights Prosecutor is aware of the danger of life of the affected and the video officially know about their repressor, it was circulated by a large audience channel, so far no quick research according to the severity of the case .
That makes those who are creating insecurity on his life are acting in total impunity, as shown by the presence of armed men inquiring about his whereabouts on Saturday 27th February.
"I fear for my life, these people I keep looking and my daughters and my mother at risk, sometimes I can not sleep because there is too much movement of vehicles and motorcycles late at night near my house that is in the corner, sometimes I think they are going to come and hurt us, "said the COFADEH.
American Commission on Human Rights, IACHR issued precautionary measures and requested Varela Murillo Honduran State a report on the implementation of the same, within 20 days.
"These are the policemen who kidnapped Varela Murillo"
Although six days have passed since they granted this international body, the State has not taken concrete actions to protect life.
The cameraman was on the staff of Channel 8, a television media launched by the government of Zelaya Rosales.
http://www.puntodevistaypropuesta.com/2013/10/honduras-sangra-ejecutan-camarografo.html