•HRES 536 IH 
been killed and disappeared. Media outlets have been 
bombed and forced into censorship. . . . Censorship due 
to violence in Latin America has reached one of its high-
est points since most of the region was dominated by 
military rule more than three decades ago.’’; 
Whereas in 2014, Cuban authorities detained 1,817 members 
of civil society, 31 of whom were independent journalists; 
Whereas in Cuba, independent journalists face sustained har-
assment, including detention and physical abuse from the 
Castro regime; 
Whereas in Ecuador, in September 2015, the government 
took steps to close the sole press freedom monitoring or-
ganization, Fundamedios, for exceeding its corporate 
charter, but the government relented in the face of inter-
national criticism and potential economic reprisals, dem-
onstrating the value of resolutions such as this; 
Whereas in the country, forced corrections by the government 
have become a means of institutional censorship; 
Whereas according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 
Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the 
world for the press; 
Whereas in Mexico, over 50 journalists have been killed or 
have disappeared since 2007, at least 11 reporters have 
been killed since 2011, 4 of them in direct reprisal for 
their work; 
Whereas according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 
at least 4 journalists have been killed in Brazil in 2015, 
many times after being tortured and having their bodies 
mutilated; 
Whereas Evany Jose´ Metzker, a political blogger in the state 
of Minas Gerais who had been investigating a child pros-
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•HRES 536 IH 
titution ring, was found decapitated outside the town of 
Padre Paraı´so; 
Whereas according to the Organization of American States 
(OAS) 2014 Annual Report of the Inter-American Com-
mission on Human rights, journalists covering protests in 
Venezuela were subject to assaults, obstruction, deten-
tion, raids, threats, censorship orders, and confiscation or 
destruction of equipment; 
Whereas, on April 21, 2015, a lawsuit within the 29th Dis-
trict Tribunal of the Metropolitan area of Caracas 
charged the journal El Nacional and its Chief Editor 
Miguel Henrique Otero for ‘‘reproducing false informa-
tion’’ and was forced to flee Venezuela; 
Whereas the Honduran national human rights commissioner 
reported that 8 journalists and social communicators 
were killed as of September, compared with 3 in 2013, 
and dozens of cases in which journalists reported being 
victims of threats and persecution; 
Whereas according to the OAS 2014 Annual Report of the 
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Members 
of the media and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) 
stated the press ‘‘self-censored’’ due to fear of reprisal 
from organized crime or corrupt government officials; 
Whereas in Colombia, there were 98 incidents of violence and 
harassment against journalists, 30 were physically at-
tacked, and 45 were victims of harassment or intimida-
tion due to their reporting; 
Whereas members of illegal armed groups sought to inhibit 
freedom of expression by intimidating, threatening, kid-
napping, and killing journalists; 
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•HRES 536 IH 
Whereas national and international NGOs reported that local 
media representatives regularly practiced self-censorship 
because of threats of violence from these groups; 
Whereas according to the OAS 2014 Annual Report of the 
Inter-American Commission on Human rights, through-
out 2014, Guatemala presented accounts of cases of har-
assment and the filing of several criminal complaints 
against a newspaper that criticized the Administration; 
Whereas according to the Department of State’s Country Re-
ports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 in Nicaragua, 
the government continued to use direct and indirect 
means to pressure and seek to close independent radio 
stations, allegedly for political reasons; 
Whereas according to the Department of State’s Country Re-
ports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 in Argentina, 
a survey released of 830 journalists throughout the coun-
try indicated 53 percent of respondents worked for a 
media outlet that self-censored content; and 
Whereas almost half the journalists surveyed said they self- 
censored in their reporting on the national government: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) supports a free press in Latin America and 
the Caribbean and condemns violations of press free-
dom and violence against journalists; 
(2) urges countries in the region to implement 
recommendations from the Organization of Amer-
ican States’ Office of the Special Rapporteur for 
Freedom of Expression to its Member States; 
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(3) urges countries in Latin America and the 
Caribbean to be vocal in condemning violations of 
press freedom, violence against journalists, and the 
culture of impunity that leads to self-censorship; 
(4) urges countries in Latin American and the 
Caribbean to uphold the principles outlined in the 
Inter-American Democratic Charter and urges their 
neighbors in the region to stand by the charter they 
are a party to; and 
(5) urges the United States Agency for Inter-
national Development and the Department of State 
to assist, when appropriate, the media in closed soci-
eties to promote an open and free press. 
Æ 
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