Reporters Without Borders and the CERIGUA Journalists’ Observatory condemn journalist Jaime Napoleón Jarquín Duarte’s murder on 20 March in Ciudad Pedro de Alvarado, in the southeastern department of Jutiapa. The two partner organizations urge the authorities to carry out a rapid investigation in order to identify those responsible - both the perpetrators and the instigators - and bring them to justice. Jarquín, 63, was playing cards on the street with three...

Reporters Without Borders strongly denounces the violent acts, that can be considered barbaric, endured by Germán Uribe, a Colombian journalist and writer. The incident occurred on February 28, 2013 at his home in Subachoque in the region of Cundinamarca. He has since suspended his writing activity but hopes to work again once he recovers from his injuries. The organization calls on the authorities to shed light on the attack, fight against impunity and guarantee the freedom of...

Paris, Mar 26 (EFE).- Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy demanded the "definitive dissolution" of the Basque terrorist group ETA, which warned Tuesday that the expulsion of its negotiators from Norway will bring "negative consequences." "I like to think positively, I don't want to talk about negative consequences, and the positive ones will be for everyone once ETA announces its final disappearance as a terrorist organization," Rajoy said in Paris at a joint...

Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said in New York that she’s afraid of the reprisals in store for her when she returns to Cuba from an international tour she began last month after five years without being allowed to leave the island. “Afraid of going back? Yes, I’m very afraid of what will happen when I go back,” the blogger told a press conference at New York University, her second appearance in the United States after attending a symposium on Thursday at...

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) was selected by the Brazilian Air Force to execute a large-scale air refueling project for several Boeing 767-300 aircraft. IAI's proposal was chosen over many international companies, the Brazilian Air Force reported on their Website over the weekend. Joseph Weiss, president and CEO of IAI, said "we are very pleased to have won the bid to provide the Brazilian Air Force with Multi-Mission-Tanker & Transport aircraft capable of performing...

Reporting on the realities of Mexican life still carries enormous risk. Against this backdrop, Reporters Without Borders submitted recommendations on 4 March to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (see document below), which will examine the case of Mexico during the 17th Universal Periodic Review (21 October - 1 November 2013). In the states of San Luis Potosí (north-center) and Tamaulipas (north-east), organized crime and local governments, the latter sometimes infiltrated...

An Israeli delegation visited the facilities of Material and Equipment Service of Uruguay National Army to present the M-60 tank, ubiquitous American-made tank that was highly improved in Israel and renamed Magach June and July Magach. Among the improvements to the original model is the installation of new fire control systems, ERA armor, new engine, changes in the tower (from the removal of the turret artillery commander to changes in the angle of the shield), replacement caterpillars by...

Elbit Systems has delivered its first Hermes 900 system to an undisclosed customer in Latin America, with its programme including the delivery of unmanned air vehicles, universal ground control stations to be installed in a mission control centre, Elop electro-optical sensors and other equipment. In August 2012, Elbit announced its receipt of an order to supply a mixed fleet of Hermes 900s and smaller Hermes 450s to a Latin American buyer. Sources in the Israeli defence establishment said...

A street in the West Bank city of al-Bireh was named for the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Al-Bireh Mayor Fawzi Abid made the announcement over the weekend during a visit to the Venezuelan embassy in the city to offer condolences for Chavez's death, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported. Chavez, who ruled the South American country for 14 years, died March 5 following a long battle with cancer. “Chavez's death is a loss to the whole world, and to the Palestinian people...

Unknown men opened fire on the premises of a newspaper and a TV station in the early morning hours of March 6, according to the newspaper Milenio. The first attack was against the newspaper El Diario around 1 a.m. 15 minutes later a similar attack was made against Canal 44, according to El Diario. There were no injuries or deaths in the attacks, and so far no arrests - in spite of a security camera that recorded the vehicle used during the first attack. After the attacks, local and state...