Journalists Killed in 2001 - Motive Confirmed: Parmenio Medina Pérez

"La Patada"
July 7, 2001, in San José, Costa Rica

Medina, producer and host of the weekly radio program "La Patada" (The Kick), was murdered by unknown assailants who shot him three times at close range with a .38-caliber weapon, once in the back and twice in the head.

Medina's 28-year-old program often denounced official corruption and earned him numerous threats. Starting in 1999, on-air accusations he made about alleged fiscal improprieties at a local Catholic radio station led to its closure and an investigation of its former director.

Two months before his murder, Medina received death threats in connection with the accusations, and unknown attackers fired bullets at his house. Although Medina had been under police protection, he asked that it be lifted just days before his death.

In a July 10 letter, CPJ praised President Miguel Angel Rodríguez Echeverría for condemning the murder and encouraged the president to ensure that the perpetrators were caught. President Rodríguez responded with an e-mail message saying, "[M]y government is committed to cooperate as best as it can with the judicial authorities to clarify these facts until their ultimate consequences and will do all it can to discover the material and intellectual authors."

No substantial progress in the investigation had been reported at year's end, however.