written by Roy Greenslade
Thursday March 12, 2015
Two journalists were shot dead in Guatemala on Tuesday (10 March) and a third was wounded in an attack by two men riding a motorcycle.
Daniel Lopez, a reporter on the daily newspaper, Prensa Libre, and Federico Salazar, who worked for Radio Nuevo Mundo, were murdered while walking in a park in the city of Mazatenango, capital of the province of Suchitepéquez.
Marvin Tunchez, a reporter with the Publinews newspaper and cable television channel 23, was taken to hospital with injuries to his left arm.
Tunchez’s family called on officials to “protect him for being an eyewitness and having survived the attack”.
Police later issued a statement saying that a suspect had been arrested four hours after the shootings. He had been riding a motorcycle in Cuyotenango, a city some eight kilometres from the scene.
In 2013, Daniel Lopez filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office alleging that a mayor had made threats against him after the publication of a story claiming that his administration had carried out £240,000 of “non-existent public works”.
Source: Latin American Herald
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Latin American Herald Tribune
written by Staff
Thursday March 12, 2015
GUATEMALA CITY – Two journalists, one who worked for the daily Prensa Libre and another employed by Radio Nuevo Mundo, were murdered in front of a government office building in Suchitepequez, a province in Guatemala, emergency services officials said.
Danilo Lopez and Federico Salazar were gunned down on Tuesday in the city of Mazatenango’s central park by two individuals riding a motorcycle.
Lopez, a reporter for Prensa Libre, was pronounced dead at the scene, while Salazar, who worked for Radio Nuevo Mundo, died at a hospital in the city.
Marvin Tunchez, another journalist, was wounded in the left arm and chest, fire department spokesman William Gonzalez said.
Tunchez, who reports for the Publinews newspaper and cable television channel 23, was transported to a hospital local.
Tunchez’s family called on officials to “protect him for being an eyewitness and having survived the attack.”
Lopez filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office, alleging that San Lorenzo Mayor Jose Linares Rojas had made threats against him, Prensa Libre reported.
The threats were made after the publication in July 2013 of a story describing 2.8 million quetzales ($358,000) of “non-existent public works” during Linares Rojas’s administration, the newspaper said.
A suspect, identified as Sergio Valdemar Cardona Reyes, was arrested four hours after the shooting, said the National Civilian Police, or PNC.
Investigators said Valdemar was arrested while riding a blue motorcycle in Cuyotenango, a city located eight kilometers (about five miles) from the shooting scene.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, said in its annual report that 60 members of the media were murdered around the world in 2014.
Eight journalists were murdered in Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru in the last six-month period, said the Inter American Press Association, or IAPA.
The two killings in Guatemala bring to 10 the number of members of the media murdered in the Americas in the past six months.
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