May 29th, 2020 – New York, NY

Contact: Elianne Ramos; Chief Communications Officer; [email protected]; 212.739.7513

New York, NY – The following is a statement from Juan Cartagena, President and General Counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, on the arrest of CNN Reporter Omar Jiménez:

Last night, as the pain and anguish from decades of state-inflicted violence and structural racism manifested itself on the streets of Minneapolis, I, along with LatinoJustice was deeply disturbed to see these injustices compounded by the wrongful arrest of CNN reporter Omar Jiménez in blatant violation of his constitutionally protected rights to uphold and promote the right to a free press.  

We continue to offer our deepest condolences to the family of Mr. George Floyd and continue to stand with the community of Minneapolis and all people who have suffered under state violence as they demand justice for their loved ones. The structural racism and anti-Blackness flowing throughout the fabric of our nation must be stripped away and replaced with one that respects, honors, and values Black lives, because Black Lives Matter. That is uppermost on our minds and our agenda at LatinoJustice.

But we also must denounce the facile comparisons between property rights to human rights in the aftermath of this murder; to the denunciation of protesters without the concomitant denunciation of state violence; and, in the case of CNN reporter, Omar Jiménez, to the discriminatory police response to his role as a journalist to that of other journalists who were allowed to do their job without arrest– only because he is Afro-Latino.

Yes, that additional manifestation of racialized state-violence pales in comparison to the loss of life of Mr. George Floyd. But it merits denunciation nonetheless, from all of us in the Latinx community that hold, cherish, and exalt our Afro-Latino community.