AMBASSADOR DISCUSSES SPANISH JOURNALIST KILLED IN

UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 000693 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CAR DRL SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL MOPS HA SP SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR DISCUSSES SPANISH JOURNALIST KILLED IN HAITI ¶1. (U) This message is sensitive but unclassified -- please protect accordingly. ¶2. (SBU) On April 13, Ambassador Sanderson met with the Spanish Ambassador to Haiti, Paulino Gonzalez Fernandez Corugedo, and his colleague, Ambassador Luis Garcia Cerezo, here from Madrid on a special investigative mission to discuss the 2004 death of Spanish journalist Ricardo Ortega. The journalist was caught in the middle of an anti-Aristide demonstration in Port-au-Prince on March 7, 2004, during which pro-Aristide gangsters opened fire. (Note: U.S. Marines were also involved in the fire fight, and some human rights groups have claimed that the Marines killed Ortega. No concrete evidence has ever emerged to substantiate this charge. End note.) Cerezo was in Haiti to demarche the Haitian government to re-open the investigation and said that the GoH seemed more determined than during his last visit to follow up on the case. He requested informally that the Ambassador mention the case during one of her meetings with Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis and/or Justice Minister Rene Magloire. The Ambassador agreed, assuring him that the Embassy would cooperate with Spanish efforts to resolve the case. SANDERSON