May 14, 1999
Carlos Saúl Menem
President of Argentina
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Your Excellency,
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its sorrow over yesterday’s murder of Ricardo Gangeme, publisher and editor of the weekly magazine El Informador Chubutense, in the town of Trelew, Chubut Province. We hope that the investigation will soon reach a successful conclusion.
At 1:28 a.m., when Gangeme was parking his Chevrolet in front of his downtown apartment, a man shot him point blank in the head with a .38 caliber pistol. A police officer who heard the shot arrived at the scene within a few minutes. Witnesses saw a man fleeing the scene on foot. Gangeme’s wallet contained checks and a large sum of money, making robbery an unlikely motive.
Gangeme, 56, had a long track-record in journalism. At the age of 14, he started working at the Buenos Aires weekly magazine Qué; he spent 16 years with the tabloid Cronica; and directed Radio Argentina. In 1992, he moved to Trelew, where he edited the daily La Jornada until 1998. Toward the end of that year, he founded the weekly El Informador Chubutense, which was known for denouncing corruption and revealing intimate details of the lives of local authorities and businessmen. According to local press reports, Gangeme’s polemic reporting earned him many enemies. Two suspects who were briefly detained have now been released.
While we are encouraged by the reactions of Your Excellency and other authorities in condemning this crime, we remind you that many previous attacks against journalists have gone unpunished. We call on you to see to it that the investigation into Gangeme’s murder continues, so that the authors of the crime will be captured and the motive established. We hope the investigation into this murder will be exemplary, demonstrating your commitment to ensuring that those who seek to silence journalists through violence are duly punished.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
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Carlos Saúl Menem
President of Argentina
Buenos Aires, Argentina