The Office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Journalists is looking into the killing of two radio journalists from the Triqui indigenous community in Oaxaca. This welcome development inspires hope that impunity will not prevail in this case, unlike the way it has in the murders of so many other journalists in Mexico, ARTICLE 19 and Centro Nacional de Comunicación Social (CENCOS) have reported.
Despite the delay in the intervention of another PGR body—the Office of the Sub-Procurator for Human Rights Attention to Victims and Community Services (subprocuraduría de Derechos Humanos Atención a Víctimas y Servicios a la Comunidad)—in the case the very fact that it has been taken on by a federal justice body is a significant step toward meeting the demands for justice being made by the victim's families, civil organizations and journalists' groups.
Teresa Bautista Merino, 24, and Felícitas Martínez de San Juan Copala, 21, were killed on April 7 as they were returning to the community of San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, when their vehicle was intercepted by a group of hired killers. The two worked for the community radio station "La voz que rompe el silencio" (the voice that breaks the silence) which began broadcasting in January 2008. The station had received telephoned death threats days before the journalists' killing.
