23957: Holmstead (radio transcript) Killing of Ricardo Ortega (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John Holmstead    <cyberkismet5@yahoo.com>


Monday, November 22nd, 2004

The Killing of Ricardo Ortega: Witnesses Say U.S.
Marines Fatally Shot Spanish Journalist in Haiti

We speak with Spanish journalist Jesus Martin who
traveled to Haiti earlier this year to pay tribute to
his slain friend and colleague, Ricardo Ortega, who
was fatally shot in the chest while he was covering a
street protest. He says Ortega was probably killed by
American marines - not by supporters of Haitian
president Aristide, as had been claimed officially.
[includes rush transcript] On March 7th of this year,
as the coup against Haitian President Jean Bertrand
Aristide took shape, journalist Ricardo Ortega fell to
the ground as he covered street protests in Port Au
Prince. He had been fatally shot in the chest. His
last words, as he was loaded onto a truck with other
wounded, were "I cannot breathe." It was reported at
the time that he had been shot by Aristide supporters.

Ricardo was in Haiti as a freelance journalist, after
being dismissed as New York correspondent for the
Spanish TV station Antena 3, which had ties to the
former government of Jose Maria Aznar. The reporter
told friends that he was dismissed after the
government complained to his superiors that his
reports of the Bush administration were too critical.

Months after the death of Ricardo Ortega, his friend
and colleague Jesús Martin traveled to Haiti with a
crew to film a program paying tribute to his friend.
But as they began to interview the witnesses to
Ricardo's killing, they were shocked to learn that he
was probably killed by American marines, and not by
supporters of Aristide, as had been claimed
officially. Witness after witness described the
arrival of a contingent of Marines on the scene, and
the subsequent gunfire that came from their direction
and struck the reporter. The witnesses complained that
no-one had ever contacted them to find out what
happened, and that no investigation had ever been
conducted into the killing of Ricardo Ortega.

    * Jesus Martin, a journalist with the national
Spanish TV network Antena 3. He conducted the
investigation into the death of his friend of Ricardo
Ortega.

AMY GOODMAN: We welcome you Jesus Martin, to Democracy
Now! Reporter also with the Spanish TV network Antenna
Tres, who went to investigate what happened to Ricardo
Ortega. Welcome.

JESUS MARTIN: Yes. We went to Haiti in September this
year, trying to know what had happened with our
colleague, Ricardo Ortega. In the beginning, everybody
felt that he was shot in the demonstration in the
streets of Port Au Prince, but we discovered that he
was shot an hour later. He was trying to know what
happened with an American journalist and an American
photographer working for The Sun Sentinel, the
southern Florida newspaper he was working with. He was
trapped in a small yard with the rest of the
journalists. They are all -- they were all trying to
get help from the American embassy in Haiti, and they
were waiting for the arrival of the marines, and the
regular ambulance to help the journalists, and that
was hard. When they -- when the Haitian people who
were there heard that there was a helicopter flying
over the yard, there were cars arriving to the yard,
they said they were Americans. The Americans were
there, and then Ricardo came out from his -- from the
place where he was, and at that moment, was shot. His
last words were -- they are here. They were trying to
say to the other people that the Americans were there.
Then we have what -- we were speaking with the people
working in the yard, and this person living there said
to us that he saw everything, and he saw an American
car going up to the -- from the -- through the main
street and a second car and a third car where the
Americans -- an American soldier and marine with a big
gun turn the gun to the -- into the yard and shot
several times. At that moment, Ricardo was shot.

AMY GOODMAN: So, where is the story? That he was
killed by Aristide supporters, where did it come from?

JESUS MARTIN: Because there was some Aristide militant
-- pro militants in the area, but pro Aristide
militants were in the other part of the street. They
were behind Ricardo, and they were on the roofs of the
area, and at that moment, they provided militants --
the militants were not -- they were not there. I mean,
they have disappeared.

AMY GOODMAN: Did you expect to find the story when you
left in September?

JESUS MARTIN: No

AMY GOODMAN: Were you doing an investigation of his
death, or just there to pay tribute?

JESUS MARTIN: We were trying to know what had had
happened, but our final aim was to pay tribute to our
colleagues. We were trying to make a story about his
life. His journalistic life, and starting from Haiti,
where he had been shot, and I -- we found that we made
our report about our main story from that moment was
the killing of Ricardo by an American soldier.

AMY GOODMAN: You report really just hair aired a few
weeks ago, your television report across Spain. What
kind of response has it gotten?

JESUS MARTIN: There's been no response at all. It's
very small; just a few magazines have said something
about it. We don't understand what has happen, and
that --

AMY GOODMAN: And what is the U.S. government saying?
What do the marines say?

JESUS MARTIN: We don't have any response from them.

AMY GOODMAN: And I was just speaking with El Pais
reporter from Spain, a close friend of Ricardo, and he
was saying how Ricardo, when he was of covering the
United Nations in the lead up to the invasion was
exposing a lot about general Colin Powell, the
Secretary of State’s speech when he talked about the
mobile units carrying weapons of mass destruction,
that he was saying that these look looked like Lego
trucks and he didn't believe it for a moment, not just
because of his instinct but because he had sources and
he was getting nervous -- his station was nervous.
They were doing the reports live on the air. That's
why he was ultimately was relieved of his being a
correspondent at the UN. Is this true?

JESUS MARTIN: Yes. This is completely true. He was
reporting live from the door of the United Nations,
and he said that it was not possible to believe what
Colin Powell was saying. He said something very -- was
very ironic, and saying that first you have to believe
that the CIA always tells the truth. Something like
that. It was very ironic and very -- I don't know how
to -- he always said what he wanted and he was a
little bit of -- not very good for the government at
that moment.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, he -- they couldn't fire him
because he was so well known, he had such a
reputation, but put on leave, but he was still
reporting for Antenna Tres as well as La Clave, a
magazine in Haiti he was contracted with?

JESUS MARTIN: Yes. He had been dismissed from the New
York correspondent, and but he was living in New York
all this time. He was working -- waiting for the
possibility of coming back to Spain or working for
another company. When he went to Haiti he had to stop
his permissions, and then he was again working for an
international television. He wasn't a freelance at
that moment.

AMY GOODMAN: What are you calling for right now? You
have done the investigation. You believe it's the U.S.
Marines who killed your colleague, Ricardo Ortega.
Right now, President Aristide is in exile in South
Africa. And it looks like the U.S.-backed government
in Haiti, Latortue, is calling for President
Aristide's arrest. It will soon be official. What is
your response?

JESUS MARTIN: My response about that, I really don't
know what is going to happen in Haiti. The only thing
I can say about the killing of our colleague, they are
trying to let everybody know what happened in Haiti.
We are trying to work -- we are trying to tell the
Spanish government that it is necessary to do
something. To open the investigation or something, but
it's something that happened there, we are almost sure
that he was shot by an American soldier.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much for
being with us, Jesus Martin, journalist with the
national Spanish TV network, Antenna 3. We will
continue to follow the story of Ricardo Ortega and
what happened to him in Haiti.



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