Parmenio Medina

Due to the nature of his work he made several enemies in Costa Rica and often received death threats. On May 9, 2001 unknown gunmen had already shot his home with no injuries. On July 7, 2001, as he investigated catholic priest Minor Calvo for anomalies in his ownership and sale of the catholic radio station "Radio María", he was shot three times with a .38 caliber gun and killed near his house in San Miguel.^[4]

Parmenio Medina was also working on other cases before his death that were never broadcast. Since these were never known it is possible somebody took advantage of Calvo's notoriety and used him as a scapegoat.

There was already some evidence linking Calvo with Colombian organized crime and there were suspicions of his involvement in the murder. On December 19, 2007, in Costa Rica's longest court trial to date, the entrepreneur Omar Chávez was convicted to 47 years in prison for fraud and as the mastermind behind the murder, priest Minor Calvo was convicted on fraud as ally of Chávez due to the proof Medina accumulated in his work before dying, and a Nicaraguan citizen by the name of Jaime "El Indio" Aguirre was convicted to 30 years in prison for the actual murder.^[5]

Parmenio Medina's murder was heavily covered and discussed in Costa Rica, partly because of the alleged involvement of a notorious Catholic priest (he was found not responsible) in a country with a heavy Roman Catholic majority. It was also the first murder of a journalist in Costa Rica, and thus a direct challenge to the country's freedom of expression and the status of the democracy of the Costarrican citizens, as well as the justice in this existing country. This case shocked the country so much that even the Costarrican rock band Inconsiente Colectivo wrote a song to the memory of this journalist called "Nunca Vencidos" (in English, "Never Defeated").

^[1]

• Media and liberties in the Americas
• Impunidad: Casos - Parmenio Medina Archived 2007-10-26 at the Wayback Machine
• Sentence reading in the case of Parmenio Medina on YouTube
• Video clip dedicated to Parmenio Medina