30 Outubro 2012
Murdered Journalist Honored, Clamor for Crime to be Solved
Paraguayan journalist Santiago Leguizamón was murdered four years ago on this day and the crime continue to go unpunished. During celebrations marking Journalists Day in 19091 (April 26), four Brazilian gunmen shot Leguizamón four times on the outskirts of Pedro Juan Caballero township, some 300 miles north of the Paraguayan capital of Asunción on the Paraguay-Brazil border, an area known for drug trafficking.
Leguizamón, then 41, was the director of a local radio station and famous for his exposures of smuggling and the illicit drug trade. The person behind his murder is believed to be a Brazilian businessman and those who actually carried it out to be four other Brazilians, two of whom themselves were murdered in 1992 the other two are being held in jail in Brazil.
Reuters news agency reported that the Paraguayan Journalists Union (SPP) has turned over documents concerning the case to the Pedro Juan Caballero court and asked the Paraguayan foreign ministry to begin extradition proceedings in Brazil to bring the guilty to justice.
The SPP said that if the Brazilian courts refuse to extradite the suspects, it will take up the matter with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.